AMBS recognized volunteers

If volunteer hours were turned into payroll dollars, then Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary has received gifts totaling $140,750 in 2008.

In the seventh year of the AMBS volunteer program, the total number of volunteers was 91, two more than in the previous year. The increase in contributed time was much greater, a jump of 20 percent to 7,214.25 hours. These statistics were reported at the annual volunteer recognition event at the seminary on May 1.

Leroy Saner, AMBS director of development, noted that the estimate of the value of volunteer time in the U.S. is $19.51 per hour, which means the contributed time adds up to a significant gift.

Among the volunteers were 71 local people who came to campus regularly or on an on-call basis and 18 who came for extended stays between one week and two months. In addition, the seminary had two full-time volunteers, Hatoko Inoue, the wife of student Takanori Inoue, and Sharon Baker, coordinator of the volunteer program.

Volunteers included seven high school students and two sponsors from First Mennonite Church in Champaign-Urbana, Ill., who worked half days on campus and visited Mennonite institutions in the area; 12 students from Bethany Christian Schools in Goshen who volunteered for a day; and four students from Elkhart Community Schools who regularly assist the maintenance staff.

Nine longer-term volunteers came through SOOP (Service Opportunities for Older Persons). Some of these have come on return visits over five years, participating in work on the AMBS library, renovations of several rooms in Waltner Hall and improving the campus grounds.

“Of course most of this volunteer work would not happen without someone to coordinate it,” Saner noted. “Special thanks go to Sharon Baker, our volunteer coordinator, who is a full-time volunteer herself.”

“In the basin and towel these people carry with them, we see the face of Jesus,” Nelson Kraybill, AMBS president, said. “They bring with them their faith, sense of purpose in life and joy.”

Mary E. Klassen / May 2009