In what seems like a lifetime ago (this past February), work had begun for the seventh annual OLLI Open House to be held July 24. This free public event has been sponsored by the 2100+ member Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Southern Oregon University, for which I volunteer.
The Open House has showcased the work of OLLI’s volunteer faculty who currently provide over 350 courses each year. It has offered free exhibit space to OLLI’s several dozen nonprofit educational, cultural and social services partners, providing them with opportunities to reach prospective volunteers for their own organizations, as well as new patrons, members and donors. With an expected attendee count of 1000+, the event posed an obvious threat to public health.
The OLLI Open House cancellation is but one example of the interruptions of a different kind of work—volunteerism—that has supported hundreds of Southern Oregon nonprofits. Literally thousands of unseen contributors to the local quality of life were left “jobless” overnight. Physical distancing restrictions not only idled those in the performing arts realm, but has also kept volunteers in the social services nonprofits from providing assistance that is most desperately needed.
Ironically, just before the lockdown, I had given a talk at the Ashland YMCA titled “Identity, Meaning, and Purpose for Aging Adults: Implications for Well-Being.” It highlighted the vital role of volunteerism in feeling connected to others and having self-worth. Double-irony: the theme of the OLLI Open House was to have been on well-being in all its myriad aspects.
Meanwhile, wherever possible, the depth of volunteer commitment to the causes they support and the benefits they personally derive has become evident. At OLLI, many volunteer instructors who had prepared for the over hundred courses slated for OLLI classrooms during the spring term that began March 30 quickly rallied to provide their courses online. Instructors from past terms jumped in to add to the curriculum. In one example, an instructor readied a course to involve OLLI members in supporting the Ashland Independent Film Festival through their viewing and discussion of the films shown online.
It is understandable that those experiencing the threat or reality of losing their income, housing, food, and health, while mourning separation from or loss of loved ones, would find jobless volunteers a minor casualty of the pandemic. That would miss the point that work—whether paid or unpaid—is an essential human need. We only need look at Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to realize that beyond our basic physiological and safety requirements, volunteerism addresses belongingness and love, esteem, self-actualization and transcendence that are intrinsically linked to the work we do.
Envy of the idle is understandable on the part of those still in the workforce, especially those in high risk jobs or burdened by additional responsibilities such as educating their children and caring for loved ones. But for those who have lost their volunteer roles, being idle is to be unmoored from the work that anchors us to our identity, meaning and purpose.