50+ Lifestyles

RSVP Staff are Matchmakers

By Julie Meyerson Program Coordinator
Retired and Senior Volunteer Program of Eastern Iowa and Western Illnois

According to Wikipedia, “Matchmaking is the process of matching two or more people together, usually for the purpose of marriage, but the word is also used in the context of sporting events, such as boxing, in business, in online video games and in pairing organ donors.” If Wikipedia had more space, it might also include to its definition, “pairing of volunteers with volunteer opportunities.”

The main goal of Retired and Senior Volunteer Program of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois is to connect our members with “meaningful” volunteer activities. “Meaningful” is defined by our volunteers, and often changes over time. RSVP, as a program of the federal agency the Corporation for National and Community Service, has service designated priorities, including Healthy Futures (alleviating hunger, food pantries, home-delivered meals), Veteran and Military Family Support, Economic Opportunity (financial literacy, homelessness, adult education), Disaster Services (Community Emergency Response Team, disaster drills, Volunteer Reception Centers), Education (K-12 tutoring and mentoring). But a great number of RSVP volunteers do a wide-range of things that don’t fit neatly into one of these categories. Some volunteers work as greeters in hospitals or offices, like the Red Cross, CASI, and World Relief. Some members enjoy caring for animals at one of several animal shelters we serve. Many volunteers enjoy helping with special events, including the Children’s Literature Festival, Youth Conference, and various parades and races. Some of our volunteers get great satisfaction from helping with bulk mailings and goody-bag assembly lines. And a large number of our members do volunteer work from their homes—knitting and crocheting baby hats or sewing blankets for cancer patients or children in foster care, being a Pen Pal to a school child, or making calls from their homes.

And of course, most of our members participate in a variety activities.

RSVP of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois serves four counties (Scott in Iowa and Rock Island, Knox and Warren in Illinois). We have 1000 members, each unique in his or her interests, availability, and skills. RSVP serves over 120 non-profits and community agencies and within those agencies are 423 different jobs! This creates a great number of possible connections and permutations. By using an online calculator, I came to 1.84765250353567 x 10 2+ 294 different combinations of volunteers and activities. I don’t know how to pronounce this number, but I know it’s a big one.

Our staff–Director Dave Layton, Program Coordinators Marcia Cook, Julie Ross, Rhonda Brady, and Melody Williams—may not know the actual number of permutations, but we realize the potential pairings between our members and the agencies we serve. We work hard to get to know each member and help determine what activities would be good matches for each. In this sense we are much like matchmakers. Finally, while we pride ourselves on making successful matches, when our volunteers are interested in trying a new or different volunteer opportunity, we encourage them to contact us and we’ll be glad to find another connection–just like traditional marriage matchmakers.

Are you interested in joining RSVP? Call us at (309) 793-4425 (QCA); (309) 737-3073 (Galesburg),
(309) 428-5841 (Monmouth).