Peter Freeman, who has the challenge of finding volunteers to teach adults to read in Williamson County, is awed by the potential at Sun City Georgetown.
“Just think of it,” he said. “All those senior citizens up there with tons of time on their hands.”
The volunteers coordinator for the Literacy Council is not alone in his wistful vision of a swelling population of financially secure retirees on Georgetown’s western edge — people who might venture out to teach reading, lend a hand at the hospital or library after a morning round of golf and some laps in the fitness center pool.
Sun City communities nationwide are noted for their active, leisure lifestyle, but they also have a reputation for something else: volunteerism. According to the communities’ developer, Del Webb Corp., residents of Sun City communities from Phoenix to Hilton Head, S.C., contribute a million hours annually to charity.
More than 900 people live here at Del Webb’s newest development, and they are following that same pattern. Residents have created and signed up for a variety of volunteer efforts within the community, such as creating networks to help newcomers adjust and to comfort neighbors experiencing illnesses, family deaths or other crises.
And gradually, Sun City Georgetown residents are venturing outside their community, exploring everything from mentoring school children to working with nursing home residents and hospital patients.
Marian Penfield, a retired kindergarten teacher, gives her Monday afternoons to a group of children in Georgetown’s Extended School Enrichment program. She helps them with homework and runs enrichment and arts-and-crafts activities. “She’s like a grandmother to those children,” said Linda Farris, the after-school-care program director. “We just think the world of her. Those children love to crawl up in her lap and have her read stories to them.”
Penfield, 63, learned of the opportunity during a visit with her investment broker. She volunteers because, “First of all, I really do love children. Secondly, I feel too young just to sit here and knit or crochet. To be truthful, I felt a little foolish just playing bridge and doing my water aerobics. God has been good to me, and I thought: There ought to be something I can do for somebody else.”
As a group, senior volunteers are a significant force. A study released last fall by the Independent Sector with the Gallup Organization found that almost half of people ages 55 and older volunteer their time. Among those 55- 64, 48 percent volunteer. Among those 65-74, 45 percent do.
Eleanor Daley, consultant for volunteer administration with the American Association of Retired Persons in Washington, D.C., said seniors “come out of a culture of giving. They’ve been expected to assume a responsibility for their communities. They now have the time to contribute time and energy.”
Gwen Morrison, director of volunteer services for Georgetown Hospital, describes retirees as people who “are prepared to make a regular commitment. They are people with tremendous skills and knowledge and enthusiasm.”
A good example is Sun City resident Peter Roll, who moved with his wife in April from Illinois. He has organized a computer club and joined the board of directors of the Metropolitan Austin Information Network, which uses volunteers to put up home pages on the Internet for nonprofit groups. He also has worked with the staff of the Georgetown Public Library in Internet training and serves on the advisory committee of the Georgetown Public Schools’ technology programs.
The retired Northwestern University administrator spent the three years before his move to Texas as executive director of Net Illinois, which developed a statewide Internet network serving primarily colleges, schools and nonprofit organizations.
Roll’s main concern about retirement was that he would lose his connection to the latest developments in technology and the Internet. His work with the Metropolitan Austin Information Network (http://www.main.org) is “a way to keep up, to stay involved with some of the pieces” of a life’s work. Plus, he said, “there’s the satisfaction you get in accomplishing something, in creating something.”