Volunteering at the Pregnancy Resource Center of Southeast Kansas, Iola, is a two-way street.
Lacey Smith, LaHarpe, has volunteered there for more than two years. She sorts donations and completes general tasks as needed. The mother of three works for OPAA, and serves meals at Jefferson School.
Smith first found out about the resource center when she saw staff members set up at the Allen County Fair. She felt compelled to volunteer after she found out the type of services the agency had to offer.
“At first I was volunteering just to be volunteering, but when I volunteer there now, (since the birth of her 3-month-old daughter, Rey) I earn mommy money,” Smith said.
Mommy money may be earned by completing tasks like attending workshops and classes, donating time and other items, researching infant-related topics and taking a child to a doctor’s appointment. Smith earned mommy money for taking a CPR class.
“Everything they have you can spend mommy money on,” she said.”It helps a lot.”
Smith has purchased numerous necessary items with her mommy money including clothes, diapers, wipes and a car seat. She is able to bring Rey to work with her.
“You can get everything you need for your baby just by learning how to be a better parent,” she said.
The Pregnancy Resource is a great benefit to the community that it serves, Smith said.
While she considers the rearing of her children to be the most significant and important part of her life, volunteering gives Smith the opportunity to help others while still making a difference in her own life.
LIFE EXPERIENCES brought Julia Wight to Hope Unlimited, Inc. She sorts donations, assists at fundraisers and performs general shelter duties. She has been with the nonprofit agency for more than 4 months. This is not the first time Wight has volunteered for Hope Unlimited, but she took a few years off to stay at home with her two children. It is important to give back to the community, Wight said.
“I don’t think we are ever going to end domestic violence but I think it is important for people to know that there is help out there,” she said.
Wight works at both A&W and Community Living Opportunities. She is transitioning so that she will work solely at CLO in the near future. At 40 years old, she also attends Allen Community College. She hopes one day to work as a drug counselor, a dream she has held since her youth.
“What an inspiration she is,” Volunteer Coordinator, Lori Holman said. “To say now it’s time to pick that back up and go for my dreams. It takes a lot of guts to do that.”
Wight likes to crochet, camp and shoot guns in her spare time. She recently attended “RedNecks with Paychecks,” in Saint Jo, Texas.
“Twelve hundred acres of nothing but redneck mudding,” she said smiling.
