Newtown’s Volunteer Tradition

It was cold, rainy, and dark when Newtown’s volunteer firefighters got out of bed Tuesday at 4 am. A house was burning on Lakeview Terrace, and they had work to do. Ambulance volunteers followed them to the scene. After several hours of dragging hoses, ladders, and themselves through the rain, mud, and rough terrain, they returned to their firehouses, cleaned up their equipment, and then returned home to pull themselves together for another day of work at their regular jobs.

These emergency volunteers are the leading edge of a well-established network of volunteer action in Newtown that safeguards and enhances our lives, not just as individuals, but also as a community. Volunteers literally save us. Their unpaid service reinforces the fabric of this community in ways that support those with the least means of support, that help those who are helpless, and that bring those living in isolation into the care and protection of the larger community. While we have good reason to thank them this week, National Volunteer Week, we would like to think our gratitude goes deeper than mere thanks can express. Their example instructs us on how best to settle the debt we owe them: payment in kind.

Last year marked the second year in a row that the rate of voluntarism declined in this country. In its 2007 report on the subject, the National Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 26.2 percent of the population volunteered — about one in every four people. The decline is not just another disappointing indicator of an economy in trouble; unemployed persons volunteer at nearly the same rate as the population as a whole. It may have as much to do with a cultural shift away from principles of collectivism and community action toward personal responsibility and rugged individualism.

Whatever the cause of this trend, we are happy to see that the commitment of volunteers in Newtown has not flagged. Dozens of civic organizations and community groups routinely pitch in to take on jobs that would normally go undone, stepping into the breech to help neighbors and strangers, to protect the environment, and to boost the financial and moral support of many a community cause. Now is the time to say thanks through volunteer action of our own. Take a look at the following list of volunteer opportunities currently available in Newtown. Do what you can to keep Newtown’s volunteer tradition strong.