City council recognizes local volunteers
By Jana Seshadri
The week of April 21 through 27 declared as National Volunteer Week in Sunnyvale, by Mayor Fred Fowler, is the beginning of a two-month long celebration of volunteers in the city.
"Volunteerism has been particularly important this year," said Romola Georgia, manager of volunteer services for Sunnyvale.
She added there has been an enormous increase in the number of people wanting to help out.
Betty Hale, a 37-year Sunnyvale resident, has been volunteering in the Special Outreach Services program at the Sunnyvale Public Library for four years. The program provides library services for "shut-ins"--those people who cannot get out to the library by themselves. By allocating two hours a month of her time, Hale is able to take books and other materials to these people's residences.
"I'm retired now and it's a good way to help," Hale said.
As long as she is able to follow the library dates and guidelines, Hale said she sets her own time schedule to do this service.
Georgia said volunteers do much more than what they used to, as many are increasingly taking on specialized and skilled projects to enhance their talents. Some people look at volunteering as a way to develop their job skills, meet more people and learn new skills, she added.
In the 11/2 years that Radhika Panday has lived in Sunnyvale, she said she learned more about the city simply by volunteering in the city offices, where she worked in the office of the city manager for five months. Her job was to identify newspaper and journal articles about the city of Sunnyvale and hand them over to city staff and council members. But she said she wanted more to do. Moving on to the communications department, Panday started to work on a special project, which she refers to as "events and services."
Charging community groups the cost for different services for special events has been an ongoing dilemma for the city, according to Linda Bagneschi communications officer for Sunnyvale.
"We wanted to put together a policy detailing how this should be done," Bagneschi said.
Prior to this, it was necessary to get input from the different city departments and that's where Panday provided her service. By developing a questionnaire/survey, Panday was able to collect input from several departments about charging community groups fees for services provided by the department at special events.
"When we put up barricades or have public safety officers present at events, then should we charge the community group for that cost," said Bagneschi, giving one example.
According to Bagneschi, in her two-month period Panday was able to cover most departments with her survey.
Panday said her visa did not permit her to work legally in the country, so she decided to qualify herself and gain more experience by volunteering.
Georgia said more than 200 people lend their skills and talents to the city by volunteering in the city offices. According to Georgia, the city plans to use its volunteer service as a hub for businesses, schools and corporations to find service opportunities in the city. She hopes their efforts will help ease their own needs and the needs of the community.
"Our focus is to enter into greater engagement with the community," Georgia said.
During the next two months different city departments and community groups will hold special events to celebrate and recognize their volunteers.
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
