Lebanon
“We couldn’t do it without volunteers. They are the ones leading that fight,” said Katy Nowoswiat, program manager of mission delivery at the Northeast Region of the American Cancer Society. “The more people that are involved with volunteering, the more people we’re able to help.”
Volunteer opportunities for The American Cancer Society are generally either patient service-oriented, or focused on outreach and fundraising. The organization is currently looking for volunteers in both arenas in the Upper Valley.
“Both components are critical to our mission,” Nowoswiat said.
On the fundraising and outreach front, volunteers are needed to help organize and work the Relay for Life in Claremont, which takes place on Friday, May 4, beginning at 6 p.m. At the walk-a-thon event, participants form teams that walk the track at the Claremont Savings Bank Community Center throughout the night in order to raise money for cancer research and to support programming. While an American Cancer Society staff member supervises the relay, most of the work to run it is handled by volunteers.
“It’s volunteers who do the majority of the organizing for the event and make it specific to their community,” Nowoswiat said. Planning for the Claremont event is in full swing, and Nowoswiat said that more volunteers are needed. “They’re a great group of people and always looking for new voices to make the community even stronger.”
The American Cancer Society is also looking for Upper Valley volunteers for the Road to Recovery program, which offers cancer patients rides to treatment appointments. In this region most of the appointments are at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and take place on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Nowoswiat said that volunteer drivers have a lot of flexibility and can give rides as often, or as rarely, as they are able. The society uses an online scheduling system where volunteers can log in and sign up for ride requests whenever they like.
“We’ve got it laid out pretty well to make the role as easy as possible,” Nowoswiat said.
Volunteer drivers must be between the ages of 18 and 85, have an insured car and pass a safety screening. Training for the position is done online, and therefore is very flexible. There is no minimum time commitment for volunteer drivers.
The society is also looking for a volunteer coordinator for the Road to Recovery program. Although many people are intimidated by the title, the role is also flexible, Nowoswiat said, and will likely require a commitment of about 5 hours per week. All new volunteer drivers use the online scheduling system, but some drivers who have been volunteering for a long time do not, so the volunteer coordinator is responsible for making phonecalls to match those volunteers with patients who request transportation. The volunteer coordinator also helps drivers troubleshoot any issues and raises awareness of the program in the community, Nowoswiat said.
All American Cancer Society volunteers help improve the lives of patients living with cancer, either directly or indirectly, Nowoswiat said.
“Sometimes requests (for transportation) are unable to be fulfilled if we don’t have enough volunteers,” she said. “And if we don’t have volunteers in the community who are helping us put on events and reach out, we can’t raise the necessary funds to funds research projects and programs.”
Anyone interested in volunteering should call 1-800-227-2345 or find more information at www.cancer.org.