NORTHLAND COMMUNITIES: Helping out

TRUE NORTH VOLUNTEER CENTER

Log on to www.truenorthvolunteercenter.org or call 726-4794 or 2-1-1 for information about volunteer opportunities.

r Imagination Library player: Dress as a character from a children's story book and welcome visitors to Dolly Parton's Imagination Library. Volunteers will also engage children with their charac-ter's story through book read-ings, questions and answers and activities. Actively seek out, mingle with and enter-tain while drawing the public to the United Way's Imagina-tion Library Station.

r Community revitaliza-tion: Assist with the second annual Neighborhood Hous-ing Services of Duluth com-munity revitalization event. Volunteers are needed for phone banking in the weeks prior to the event, as well as event day tasks including parking coordination, greet-ing, registration, serving refreshments, ushering dur-ing the program and other general assistance.

r 2008 Beach Sweep: The Great Lakes Aquarium is looking for volunteers to help clean up Minnesota's shore-line (river, lake, stream, etc.) during September and Octo-ber. Participants can choose from 10 different locations to help clean.

r Pedal for Y Partners: Help the Duluth Area Family YMCA during its Sept. 20 bicycle event from Duluth or to Camp Miller in Sturgeon Lake on the Munger Trail. Volunteers are needed on the trail to assist at checkpoint stations.

r Archery: Courage Cen-ter needs volunteers to coach youth and adults with physi-cal disabilities in bow and arrow instruction. Classes are held at Chalstrom's Archery Center on Rice Lake Road.

FOSTER GRANDPARENT PROGRAM

Foster Grandparent Pro-gram of Northeast Minnesota & Northwest Wisconsin pro-vides opportunities for men and women 60 and older to support children. Volunteers tutor and mentor children on-site in schools, child care centers and Head Start pro-grams in Northeast Minne-sota and Northwest Wiscon-sin. Opportunities exist at:

r Head Start classrooms in Duluth, spending time with children ages 3-5.

r Raleigh Edison Charter School in Duluth, spending time with children in elemen-tary grades.

r Northern Lights Elemen-tary in Superior, spending time with second- and third-grade students.

Volunteers who meet fed-eral income eligibility guide-lines receive a benefit pack-age including an hourly sti-pend, transportation, training and recognition.

For information call 394-5384 or (888) 338-6492 or e-mail fgp@ccbsuperior.org . FGP is an equal opportunity volun-teer program of the Catholic Charities Bureau.

COMMUNITY OFFENDER RE-ENTRY PROGRAM

SOAR Career Solutions, Men as Peacemakers, Lake Superior College and Arrow-head Regional Corrections seek sponsors for men and women coming out of incar-ceration and participating in the Community Offender Re-entry program.

Volunteers are asked to meet with a returnee one hour per week to provide a meaningful friendship and guidance to ex-offenders. Training is provided, and voluntary group support meetings are held every Tuesday at Men as Peacemak-ers for both sponsors and participants.

Contact Dave Anderson at 727-1939 or e-mail dave@menaspeacemakers.org if interested.

PARENT WARMLINE

Compassionate parents and/or professionals inter-ested in sharing and caring are needed to volunteer from your home. Good phone skills and parenting experience necessary. Flexible schedul-ing, training provided. Call the Parent Warmline at 391-9561 or Brenda at 525-3242.

LUTHERAN SOCIAL SERVICE

Lutheran Social Service seeks volunteers for the fol-lowing opportunities.

r Bethany Crisis Nurs-ery: Volunteer advocates are needed to answer the crisis line during non-office hours and carry cellular phones after office hours. Bethany Crisis Nursery works to pre-vent child abuse and neglect by providing short-term care to children in a family crisis and advocates assess child care needs to help families through difficult times. Some transportation of children is required. Orientation and training is provided. Call Leslie Perrett at 529-2287.

r Friendly Visitors: Spend time with people in nursing homes, assisted living or individual home settings. Read the paper, talk about current events, go for a walk, share a craft or a cup of coffee. Orientation and training provided. For an application and more information call Leslie Perrett at 529-2287.

r Senior companions: Volunteers are needed for 15 (flexible) hours per week to assist others in maintaining the highest level of dignity and independent living possi-ble by visiting home-bound/isolated adults, assist-ing with vital services such as appointments and grocery shopping, and acting as a caring friend. Training, small stipend and mileage reim-bursement provided; must be 60 years old to draw the sti-pend. Call Peg at 724-0648.

r Caregiver respite vol-unteer: Seeking volunteers to provide in-home companion-ship, a safe environment and informal, non-medical care for an elderly or disabled adult in order to give the primary caregiver temporary relief from the responsibili-ties of caregiving. Two- to 4-hour commitment per week. Training provided and mile-age reimbursed. Call Peg at 724-0648.

CENTER AGAINST SEXUAL AND DOMESTIC ABUSE

CASDA seeks volunteers to help provide supportive ser-vices to individuals hurt by domestic violence, sexual assault or child abuse. Volun-teers assist staff; provide childcare, main office support or transportation for clients (mileage paid); and on-call advocacy. Call Natalie, volun-teer program coordinator, at 392-3136 or e-mail to nata-lie@casda.org for informa-tion. To apply, stop by the office between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday at 2231 Catlin Ave. in Supe-rior.

AARP TAX PREPARER

Assist seniors in preparing income tax forms through the American Association of Retired Persons. Volunteers typically work one or two mornings a week during the tax season. Experience is not necessary and training is provided. Experienced pre-parers are present to assist volunteers. For more infor-mation call John at (218) 310-0533 and leave a message or e-mail jsedgwick@charter.net .

RELAY FOR LIFE

Organizers of the 2009 Du-luth Relay for Life seek volun-teers to join the planning committee.

Next year's event is sched-uled for July 17-18, but the planning committee works year-round. Scheduled meet-ings begin at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 2 and 30, Nov. 20 and Dec. 18 and are held at Holy Cross Church.

Call Stacy at (218) 260-5549 for more information or to volunteer.

ARROWHEAD RSVP OPPORTUNITIES

The following volunteer opportunities are supported by the Arrowhead Retired & Senior Volunteer Program, which encourages people of all ages to participate. For more information on jobs listed or other volunteer positions available, call Sheri at RSVP at 729-5509 ext. 111.

r Benedictine Heath Cen-ter: Serve as front desk recep-tionist for 3-4 hours on Wednesdays or as a gift shop clerk on Friday afternoons.

r St. Scholastica Monas-tery: Help in gift shop; greet visitors and answer phones at the information desk; or transport residents to sched-uled appointments.

r Bayshore: Assist resi-dents playing bingo, on an outing, playing cards or by just visiting with them.

If your organization needs volunteers for a cause, you can make a request to read-ers. Send it to Helping Out, Duluth News Tribune, 424 W. First St., Duluth, MN 55802, email tllarson@duluthnews.com , or fax 720-4120.