Volunteer Center of Morgan County shutting down after 54 years
For the Enquirer
The nonprofit Volunteer Center of Morgan County, founded in 1971, will shut down March 31.
“(If) we’re not fulfilling our core mission and there’s no way to really do that again, then maybe it’s best for us to take one nonprofit out, so that these other nonprofits can thrive,” said Volunteer Center of Morgan County (VCOMC) Board of Directors President Pam Werstler, who also cited funding as a reason for closing.
The VCOMC, Werstler said, started many projects over the years, including the Christmas Hope Chest. The chests are decorated shoe boxes filled with toys for children of low-income families, and the center distributed them to 1,758 children in December.
“Other organizations started doing that as well. We started building handicap ramps for people that needed them; other agencies were doing that as well,” Werstler said. “So, a lot of the things that we were doing, other agencies were doing as well. You look at it after a while and you’ve got duplication of services, and you look at what is good for the area.” Werstler said VCOMC looked at what was best for Morgan County and the abundance of duplicate services. She said this was one way in which they were no longer meeting their core value and is one reason they decided to close.
Jessica Payne, Community Free Clinic of Decatur executive director, was executive director of VCOMC from 20082012.
“It’s been a part of our community for 54 years. Providing an avenue for people to serve the community is super important in coordinating that effort,” she said. “So, it definitely will be missed for sure.” We r s t l e r said funding has become an issue for the nonprofit.
She said the VCOMC has its own fundraising activities, but most of their funding comes from the United Way of Morgan County.
“The United Way has cut, and not just us, but other nonprofits as well, in the last two or three years. That has impacted us considerably,” she said. “We’re at about half of what we were from 2021 to 2022.” Kimberly Ray, United Way of Morgan County president and CEO, declined to comment.
Werstler said another reason for their closure is because the VCOMC used to supply organi- zations with volunteers, but now that service is not needed as much.
“In 1971, you didn’t have the internet, you didn’t have social media,” she said. “Now the nonprofits can pretty much have their own database of their own volunteers and can get their own people.” VCOMC was a sponsor for United Way’s Day of Caring, which is a day in which volunteers perform services across the county. Werstler said their members would volunteer that day at various projects. She said she believes, with VCOMC gone, other organizations will step up in its place.
Werstler said VCOMC is currently working to make sure there will not be any gaps in service in the county after they shut down.
“We are working right now with other nonprofits for them to take over certain services,” she said. “For instance, we have the presidential service volunteers where the high school kids do volunteer work, and they track their hours. Well, we are in discussions with another nonprofit. We would move that over to them. And the shoeboxes can move over to someone else; I think there are organizations that are doing those as well.
“So, we’re making sure that what we’re doing is going to be picked up by other agencies.” Werstler said closing VCOMC was a difficult decision.
“We could have kicked the can down the road – we could have done that and completely run out of money,” she said. “But what we decided to do instead of kicking it down the road, was go ahead and work with these other agencies and do what’s right for the county.” Over the years, the center’s reach has extended across the county: providing air conditioners and heaters for low-income residents, distributing Christmas gifts to children and youths, building wheelchair ramps, mowing lawns, cutting down trees, coordinating United Way’s Day of Caring, serving at Decatur Morgan Hospital’s Dragon Boat competition and Mosaic Mentoring’s Wet Dog Triathlon, assisting with Can-a-Thon and Barrels of Love, running Cinderella’s Closet and manning the reception center for Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster.
VCOMC was originally founded by volunteers, assisted with a $2,000 donation from Decatur Kiwanis Club.
