Best Advice for Attracting and Retaining Volunteers: Show Your Appreciation

With time to spare, and love to share, Margaret Kruman set about to find a passion in Brandon.

“I kept joining different things but I couldn’t find a place I could just land,” said Kruman, who upon moving to Brandon from New York wanted to find a way to delve deeply into the civic work of her newly adopted home.

Then she found the Center Place Fine Arts & Civic Association, where Dec. 5 she celebrated with her colleagues at a luncheon in honor of their volunteer services.

For Kruman, Center Place became her passion, “because I love it,” she said.
“I love children,” she said. “And when I heard about Center Place I was looking for a place to go where I could meet people. It’s hard to make friends” when you’re from out of town.

Kruman is not alone in her assessment of what makes Center Place a great place to give back.

“I love the children,” she said. “To see their faces and hear their clapping as they’re watching the shows. They get so excited. You see the excitement in their eyes.”

Center stage Dec. 5 were the volunteers without whom Center Place, and its mission to engage children in the visual and performing  arts, would not have a chance of succeeding, said Dawn Galia, the center’s executive director.

“We couldn’t do what we do without our volunteers,” Galia said. “We have a very small staff and a very big mission.”

Galia noted that throughout the year some 100 people volunteer at Center Place.  About 35 of them attended the appreciation luncheon.

“Volunteers run our [Pat’s Corner] gift shop, which is open every day, 11 to 2:30,” Galia said. “They also work at all our children’s theater shows. They usher and seat the more than 17,000 children who come to our shows every year.”