Seniors find reward in volunteering

She does it for the smiles and hugs, the eager, attentive faces and the pleas from young students to "come back and visit us again."

Volunteering keeps Ginny Bollman, a retired teacher and school administrator, close to what she loves: teaching and helping students learn.

Bollman volunteers as an instructor for Junior Achievement, a nonprofit educational program for elementary students that brings lessons to the classroom in different areas of economics.

Her Junior Achievement work is part of the roughly 20 hours per week she spends volunteering with different organizations.

"I've always been really into building connections and community relations," Bollman says.

It's an unpaid position, and Junior Achievement instructors don't necessarily needa background in education. Most volunteers are businesspeople who volunteer during their lunch breaks.

"Anybody with any desire and care can teach it," she says.

Bollman, though, has a history in education and loves teaching.

She spent 32 years in the Grand Forks Public School district, 12 as a teacher and 20 as aprincipal. Eleven of those years were spent as the principal of Viking Elementary School, where she volunteers today. She retired in 2004, and has spent the past eight years as an instructor with Junior Achievement.

"I do it because of the love of learning and Ijust love teaching it so much," Bollman says.

Bollman volunteered this year with Joan Huus' second grade class at Viking. Her grandson, James McArthur, 7, is a student in the class.

Bollman's other grandchild, Alex McArthur, 12, participated in Junior Achievement from kindergarten to fifth grade, and she was the instructor each year. Bollman says the teaching opportunity is a chance to spend time with her grandchildren, and she hopes to inspirea similar sense of volunteerism in them.

"They get to see another side of me," she says.

From year to year, Bollman works with many of the same students as they progress through their grades. She says she enjoys watching the students -- and her grandchildren -- grow.

"It is just so fulfilling and exciting and interesting. I just love to watch their development. It's one of the highlights of my year."

How the program works

Lessons in Junior Achievement are developed for kindergarten through fifth-grade students, and the subjects get more advanced each year. Kindergartners might begin with basic money counting and vocabulary words, while students in higher grades might be tasked with developing a plan to advertise a new product at a business.

"I do believe in the curriculum and I think it has a lot of offer," Bollman says. "The curriculum has evolved."

The lessons are participation-oriented and highly interactive. Students often go home with projects and homework.

"It gives them something to talk about. AndI know they do. There's not a moment where they don't have to be thinking and relating."

The lessons in the program -- taught in five onehour sessions during the school year -- are meant to complement the curriculum already taught in the classroom, "and I think it bringsa real-world connection to the classroom," Bollman adds.

Bollman completed her five hours of volunteer instruction in January.

"You get such a good feeling," she says. "You just come away witha full heart, and hope they go away with a full mind."

Bollman says she hopes to still be an instructor by the time her three other grandchildren, infants now, get to grade school.

"As long as I can do it, I will."

Fitting in full-time

Sue Bjornstad fits volunteering in with afull-time position as a fundraiser for Valley Memorial Homes.

Bjornstad volunteers about four hoursa week, including two hours a month helping students in the computer lab at Holy Family-St. Mary's Catholic School in Grand Forks, where her granddaughter, Taylor Herman, 5, started kindergarten this year.

"It's the reward of knowing that they're learning each time they sit down in front of the computer," she says. "They're not afraid."

The spirit of volunteerism runs in her family: Bjornstad's grandmother was a Sunday school teacher for 40 years and her parents, in their 80s, still are active in their church and community.

"I grew up with it," she says.

At 57 and working full time, she's not the traditional senior volunteer.

"I'm probably on the younger end of the spectrum, but thenI have 30 years of volunteering to look forward to," she says.

Bjornstad joined Holy Family-St. Mary's to be a bigger part of her granddaughter's life, and she hopes to instill a similar spirit of volunteerism in her granddaughter and the students she helps.

"I'm just thankful that there are opportunities to do this" she says. There's always a place for (volunteers.)

Bjornstad helps students in the computer lab with schoolwork such as math, vocabulary and the paint program.

"It's amazing to see the little ones, how advanced they are on the computer," she says. "I'm learning with them."

This is Bjornstad's first year at the school, but she already has developed a bond with the students.

"It's fun when they call you by name," she says.

With 21 students in the kindergarten class this year, Bjornstad says she's happy to be an extra set of hands for the teacher.

"As I look toward retirement in the next several years, volunteering will be at the top of my list," she says. "I'm really looking forward to another 30 years of volunteering."

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