Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, volunteering continues to be the norm in New Albany. Though charitable organizations have had to quickly adopt new guidelines in order to keep volunteers and clients safe during the pandemic, the community’s volunteers didn’t skip a beat while the needs evolved and, in many cases, grew.
The New Albany Food Pantry, for instance, made many changes at the onset of the virus in mid-March 2020. It moved its base of operations from the New Albany-Plain Local School District buildings to the Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany and relied on its leadership team instead of its scores of registered volunteers, says Jennifer Wilcoxon, director of the food pantry.
“Things obviously changed drastically,” she says.
Volunteer opportunities reopened in June, allowing some volunteers back in the pantry, while others helped pick up food from donors such as large grocery store chains and coffee shops, where there was limited interaction with other people, says Rachel Jaffy, the pantry’s volunteer coordinator.
Volunteers also stepped up to help out in key moments last year such as during the holidays. For Thanksgiving, 20 community members volunteered to deliver meals to families. They continue to receive volunteer signups, registering 10 to 15 each month, Jaffy adds, and the pantry now has about 300 volunteers, about 50 of whom are heavily involved.
“The support we receive from the community … made us realize how amazing our community is,” Wilcoxon says.
Although the food pantry wasn’t able to hold its annual volunteer appreciation event, pantry staff have found other ways to recognize volunteers including spotlights on social media and last year awarded its inaugural Volunteer of the Year award to New Albany resident Denise Parman.
New Albany High School Key Club members volunteer their time with the community.
In addition, the food pantry continues to receive assistance from New Albany students. Raja Patel, vice president of the NAPLS Key Club chapter, led club efforts to donate 341 pounds of shelf stable food to the pantry. For more than two decades, New Albany High School students have been required to complete 25 hours of service learning to graduate.
Patel, now a junior at the school district, has been a member of the Key Club since his freshman year. He joined the Key Club as a way to meet the service learning requirement.
“Since then, I’ve learned it’s a lot more than that,” he says.
Through Key Club, Patel has participated in annual volunteering events, some of which didn’t happen last year because of the pandemic. Each year, NAPLS Key Club organizes a car smasher event at a high school football game to raise funds for breast cancer research. Participants get the chance to spray paint an old vehicle and smash it with a sledgehammer.
“We weren’t able to do that this (school) year,” says Aagam Dalal, a president of the NAPLS Key Club.
Dalal says the pandemic restraints have made it difficult to keep its volunteer base engaged as there are not as many in-person events. He hopes as the weather warms up there will be more outdoor opportunities, where social distancing is easier.
In addition, Dalal adds the Key Club has done a lot more Google Meets than ever before, but that digital communication doesn’t replace those in-person interactions.
“It’s difficult to be a leader without getting that constant feedback from people,” he says.
Although the pandemic has canceled or postponed some volunteer opportunities, it has created other opportunities, too.
Sophia Samuel, a member of the NAPLS Key Club board, says some members wrote letters to frontline workers such as Mount Carmel Health System’s nurses and doctors who are dealing with the crisis on a daily basis.
“We’ve come up with some good ideas,” Samuel says.
Looking to get involved and volunteer your own time to benefit New Albany? Check out this list of just a few local organizations as a place to start your search.
- Columbus Metropolitan Library, www.columbuslibrary.org
- Habitat for Humanity, www.habitat.org
- Healthy New Albany, www.healthynewalbany.org
- Jerseys of Hope, www.jerseysofhope.com
- Jeanne B. McCoy Community Center for the Arts, www.mccoycenter.org
- New Albany Chamber of Commerce, www.newalbanychamber.com
- New Albany Eagle Backers, www.eaglebackers.org
- New Albany Food Pantry, www.newalbanyfoodpantry.org
- New Albany Parks and Recreation, www.naparks.org
- New Albany-Plain Township Historical Society, www.newalbanyhistory.info
- New Albany Safety Town, www.newalbanysafetytown.org
- New Albany Special Olympics, www.sooh.org
- New Albany Women’s Network, www.nawn.org
- Wesley Hospice, www.wesleyhospice.com
- City of New Albany, www.newalbanyohio.org
Brandon Klein is the editor. Feedback welcome at bklein@cityscenemediagroup.com.
