For the Gardner family of New Lenox, volunteering is a way of life.
Dave Gardner, 45, and Laura Gardner, 47, each have a career with a non-profit organization.
Dave is chief financial officer of Easter Seals Joliet Region, which provides services to people with disabilities or special needs and their families. Laura is the volunteer services manager for Sertoma Centre, which has several sites on the South Side that serve individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities.
Despite the many hours spent at their day jobs, the Gardners volunteer during their free time to help their employers and other non-profit organizations to better the lives of those in need. The Gardners also include their children Josh, 14, and Anne, 10, in volunteer activities.
As a family, the Gardners support the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts in New Lenox every November when the Scouts conduct a food drive in New Lenox, which helps supply three community food pantries for months, Dave Gardner said.
The couple also helps coordinate Girl Scout cookie sales for Anne’s troop.
In addition to volunteering his time at multiple Easter Seal fundraising events, Dave Gardner has been a member of Kiwanis Club of Joliet for the past eight years. He is currently the club’s president and also served three years as the treasurer, he said. As a member of Kiwanis, he also participates in the organization’s telethon to raise money, volunteers for cleaning and painting projects in the Joliet area and assists at the annual bowl-a-thon fundraiser. One of his annual Kiwanis volunteer activities is to collect money on Peanut Day, a long-time Kiwanis fundraiser to help further the non-profit’s mission to improve children’s lives. Gardner said his children are right by his side when he collects the donations at a local Walmart store.
“I try to have my kids involved as much as possible at those volunteer events,” he said.
Gardner’s volunteering spirit took root when he was a student at Indiana University, he said. While looking for an opportunity to volunteer, he answered a call from the Red Cross to transport cancer patients to treatment and “really enjoyed it.”
“It gave me the experience at a young age of the real benefits of volunteering…,” Dave said. “It kind of gives you the focus that the life that you live is not just about you. It’s really about others.”
The Gardners’ current project combines career and volunteer activities.
As part of her job at Sertoma Centre, Laura Gardner annually coordinates about 150 volunteers to pack, deliver and oversee items donated to the agency from about 30 vendors for display at the annual McCormick Place International Housewares Show.
Sertoma Centre is one of five non-profit agencies allowed to receive donations for the show, Gardner said. She said after the show, the Centre is allowed to sell the housewares at a “Housewares Super Sale” to benefit the 1,500 people the organization serves each year.
For the last four years, Dave has been a volunteer for the housewares event, acting as a booth leader and helping to pack, set up and repack the items.
Dave also volunteers for the “Housewares Super Sale,” which will be held this year on April 2 and April 3 in the former Dominick’s building, 6401 W. 127th St., Palos Heights, Laura Gardner said.
She said many volunteers age 18 and older are still needed for both events. Volunteers who pack items for the Housewares Show are bused to McCormick Place for the March 8 event and provided with a boxed meal. Volunteers for the “Super Sale” will be needed in mid-March to unpack, set up and price the items and in April to assist during the sale days.
“So we need a lot of help for that to happen,” Laura said.
The couple encourages anyone who is considering to volunteer to contact Sertoma Centre. Laura Gardner said because of the wide variety of jobsjust about anyone with a willing spirit can be useful.
“Another big plus why I [volunteer] is to be kind of a role model for my kids and also just for other people,” Dave Gardner said. “You try to show the people …it’s not hard to do and you feel good doing it. You’re going to meet some great individuals [and] you get to work with some great organizations.”
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For more information or to become a volunteer, contact Laura Gardner at [email protected] or call (708) 730-6211. For more information about Sertoma Centre, visit www.sertomacentre.org.