Smart use of volunteers

Summary of Article's First 150 Words

Total word count: 1834

Volunteers pose a special area of concern for child care centers. On one hand, they are indispensable as they donate countless hours of time, energy, and resources. On the other hand, there are challenges to coordinating the efforts of volunteering parents.

Benefits

Volunteer parents bring in snacks, do work, drive or chaperone on field trips, coordinate festivals, and help in a variety of ways. Usually the center staff just needs to ask and there will be parents who answer the call. The manpower hours they provide can be significant when added together over the course of a year. If a center had to pay staff members to accomplish the same tasks, it would cost thousands of dollars! Add in the donations of food, toys, clothes, decorations, books, and other resources, and the size of volunteers' contributions skyrockets! There are other less-visible benefits of volunteering, for both parents and center staff. When ...