By Meranda Waters
There are people in this world who leave a lasting impression on their community.
Sybil Cooke, 69, was one of those people.
A dedicated volunteer at the Ottawa Little Theatre since 1954, Cooke lost a battle with cancer this September.
“There goes our heart. There goes a huge chunk of our history,” says Raven Drake, assistant to the office manager at the theatre.
Cooke gave 43 years of her life to the theatre. She participated in many areas of play production, from acting to directing. She spent the last seven years as the president of the theatre’s board of directors.
“She couldn’t stand to be away,” says Drake of Cooke’s three-to-five-day-a-week commitment.
Cooke is an example of the ultimate volunteer and for the Ottawa Little Theatre, Drake says the reliance on volunteers is “total.”
They have a staff of nine full-time and 15 part-time employees.
But it is the 60-70 volunteers that “keep us up and going,” Drake explains.
The Ottawa Little Theatre is not alone in its need for volunteers. The Volunteer Centre of Ottawa-Carleton helps more than 350 non-profit organizations find volunteers in some 5,000 different positions every year.
Nathalie Charette, manager of education and promotion at the centre, says that while the desire to help others remains strong, what drives people to volunteer has been changing over the past several years.
Government cutbacks and downsizing have played a major role.
As more and more people lose their jobs or are unable to find work, they put their skills to use in the volunteer sector.
More than 28 percent of the volunteers who passed through the Volunteer Centre last year were unemployed.
As well, Charette says that organizations are on the lookout “for more professional volunteers.”
Charette points out that although the need for volunteers has increased with loss of funding and support, “you can’t replace a paid job with a volunteer job.”
There is another side to the need for volunteers. While many organizations would happily welcome an extra set of hands, any old hands will no longer do.
With the introduction of legislation that calls for screening potential volunteers, organizations seeking volunteers must do so cautiously.
While volunteering lets you get involved in the community and offer your skills, it is also being used for other purposes, such as gaining valuable work experience.
At CDI College, a volunteer work program is in place to help students get involved with different corporations in Ottawa for work related experience.
Chris Donnelly, corporate relations manager at the college, says volunteering “is an invaluable asset to have on a resume.”
He says volunteering speaks highly of the individual. It shows they have a real interest in the field they are pursuing because they were willing to work for free.
Donnelly says companies are looking for volunteering on people’s resume and that “(companies) will always, always be worried about people who don’t have experience.”
While the face of volunteering is changing and becoming a volunteer isn’t quite as easy as it used to be, the need is there. And whether a volunteer gives three hours a week or five days a week, organizations in Ottawa couldn’t make it without their support and dedication.