Hurricane Sandy. Image courtesy of NASA.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, volunteerism has been in the limelight, with a special focus on the efforts of Occupy Sandy and other volunteer grassroots clean-up and relief efforts in the Rockaways and Staten Island. At the conference “Charting the Road To Resilence: From The Ground Up” held on January 12 and organized by the Municipal Art Society of New York to examine what worked and what did not, experts, citizens and organizations of all stripes involved in these efforts, including FEMA and NYC agencies, expressed thanks and satisfaction with the role volunteers had played.  Given the conditions under which the volunteers worked, it seemed that many of those efforts were manned by younger rather than older volunteers. What does this say about the role of retired boomers and seniors in volunteer efforts? Are retirees needed and valued as volunteers?

The answer is a resounding yes. According to the New York City-based Volunteer Referral Center, executives and managers of some of the City’s leading social service, health, arts and mentoring programs are courting the 50-plus crowd. Here are the top five reasons why our demographic is valued as volunteers:

1.  We provide needed skill sets and well honed expertise in all areas.

2.  We are very effective advocates, particularly on behalf of seniors in nursing homes. Since we may have gone through the experience of having parents in nursing homes ourselves, we often understand the concerns and issues that both residents and their families have, such as food quality, lost laundry, hoarding and staff attitudes.

3.  We provide the peer-to-peer contact that seniors especially value. Our presence enhances the credibility and effectiveness of the service and creates a sense of family and community for those who have lost family and friends.

4. We provide valuable role models in leadership, communication and learning/education when we work with disadvantaged and challenged youth.  We often break down their stereotype of adults and the barriers they have built up from years of abuse and poverty by developing positive, trusting relationships with them.

5. We have acquired good people skills, good judgment and maturity – qualities that are especially important when working with others, no matter which type of service or level of expertise we are providing.