Volunteer Center of Morgan County shuts down, passes the baton

For the Enquirer

The Volunteer Center of Morgan County has shut down but has distributed its projects and its remaining funds to other organizations.

“You have to notify the secretary of state that you’re dissolving a nonprofit corporation, and I just sent the letter to the secretary of state notifying them (last week),” said Volunteer Center of Morgan County board president Pam Werstler.

She said a staffing agency is expanding into the former Volunteer Center office on Second Avenue Southeast. “The offices are already going to be occupied. They’re painting and all that kind of stuff,” she said.

Werstler said the Volunteer Center 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 serving a valuable function and is one reason they decided to close.

Werstler said building wheelchair ramps is an example of the duplicate services the Volunteer Center previously provided, a task that is also handled by Morgan County Mobility Missions. “We’re promoting them, and we had some various things and materials that we use to build wheelchair ramps that we donated to them,” Werstler said.

Scotty Kelsoe, co-founder of Morgan County Mobility Missions, said their nonprofit has been building wheelchair ramps for about a year and a half. He said they are prepared to take on anyone in need who would have been served by the Volunteer Center.

“We would be glad for them to get on our list,” Kelsoe said. “We’re slower during the winter, but we were doing like one a weekend in the summertime, when the weather permitted.” Kelsoe said they have built 49 ramps so far, free of charge.

“When we get one done, someone else will sign up; it’s an ongoing thing. We haven’t gotten caught up since we started,” he said. “When we started, I thought we’d do 10, 12 ramps, maybe.” They are in need of volunteers and donations, Kelsoe said.

Werstler said the United Way of Morgan County will be taking over the Presidential Volunteer Service Awards (PVSA) and Kids Interested in Volunteer Services (KIVS).

The PVSA “honors individuals whose service positively impacts communities in every corner of the nation and inspires those around them to take action, too,” she said. “KIVS is a summer program that allows kids ages 10 to 15 to experience volunteering by working with various local nonprofits.” Werstler said the Volunteer Center asked United Way if they would like to take over the programs.

“We felt like that was a good place for that to land,” she said. “They’re kind of related because they deal with kids, young people. We would like for both of those programs to go to the same organization.” Kimberly Ray, United Way of Morgan County president and CEO, said they are excited to take over the PVSA and KIVS programs for the Volunteer Center. She said the programs will fit perfectly under their umbrella.

“United Way is for mobilizing volunteers and with all the different community service projects like Day of Caring, it’s just the perfect fit for us,” Ray said. “When we met with the board with the Volunteer Center, my promise to them is that we’re going to make them proud with these programs and carrying them on with the continued high expectations that they have set forth.” Werstler said the Volunteer Center had a Holiday Hope Chest program, which provided wrapped shoe boxes filled with gifts to children, from infants to age 18, who may not otherwise receive anything for Christmas. She said Decatur Youth Services will be taking over the program.

“They have a Christmas program where they help underprivileged children now,” she said. “They reached out to us and said, ‘Hey, we would like to take that on.’ So, they came and learned all about it. … It was great; we couldn’t find anybody to take it.” Werstler said the Volunteer Center had funds left over and met to decide which organizations should receive the funds.

“We dissolved the Volunteer Center – we didn’t wait until the very end where we were just completely defunct,” Werstler said. “We left when we had money to give other organizations, other agencies, other nonprofits in Morgan County to help them better serve the public as well. So, we’re kind of proud of that as well.” The five agencies that will receive the remaining funds from the Volunteer Center are Morgan County Mobility Missions, United Way of Morgan County, Decatur Youth Services, the Committee on Church Cooperation and Neighborhood Christian Center.

The Volunteer Center was founded in 1971.