I retired from Unum in 1999 and continued to work until February of this year.  When I decided to
be really retired I needed to find something to fill my time, after working many years it was difficult
to just stop.  I had done some volunteer work between working and found it very rewarding.  I was
very happy to be seeing some former co-workers and to be doing something for the community.  Well
as it turned out Florence Wile-Hodson had decided that she wanted to give up the job as Volunteer
Coordinator and I was approached by Anne Andrews to take over the position.   After being invited
to attend a Board Meeting for VALUR (now Unum Retirees) I decided to take on the task. 

I met with Florence in June and she gave me the list of the Non-Profits that the VALUR group had
been supporting. I called all of them and introduced myself and explained what VALUR was able to
do for them.  We had some non-profits that contacted us regularly and some that the personnel had
changed and they did not know about VALUR.  We have also had some new non-profits call and ask
for assistance; these have been referred by former Unum employees. We currently have 6 or more
assignments monthly and have about 30 people who are on the phone tree that help when they are
available. 

Some of the things we are asked to do are stuffing and labeling envelopes, making gift packs for
events, sending raffle tickets for corporate drawings, labeling brochures, running envelopes through
postage machines, sending thank you gifts, filling bags for kidney screenings and making pins.

 There are many different ways to volunteer in the community that is not related to the list of non-
profits that VALUR supports.  We have people working for their churches, political support,
donating time at nursing homes, food cupboards, soup kitchens, hospitals, the symphony, historical
societies, museums, track clubs, Waban projects, local hospitals, Bruce Roberts, cemeteries, theaters,
blood drives, meals on wheels, schools, nursing homes and fraternal organizations.

As you can see volunteering is very diverse and that folks are helping in their own communities a lot
and not just at the bigger agencies in Portland.

This has been very rewarding and the non-profits are so thankful for our help.  If anyone is interested
in joining the phone tree, we would love to have your help.  We usually have 3-4 days notice from the
organization and can always use more hands.  Please give me a call at 839-4371 or e-mail
Bdahms1@maine.rr.com

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