‘Snowbirds’ arrive in El Dorado

Volunteers spend their time at HOPE Landing, area agencies

Hope: Mervin Mast gathers up a table covering after finishing painting a new art room Tuesday at HOPE Landing. Mast is one of a group of volunteers from northern Indiana who are staying in the area and giving their time to local organizations. Madeleine Leroux/News-Times
Hope: Mervin Mast gathers up a table covering after finishing painting a new art room Tuesday at HOPE Landing. Mast is one of a group of volunteers from northern Indiana who are staying in the area and giving their time to local organizations. Madeleine Leroux/News-Times

Volunteers spend their time at HOPE Landing, area agencies

By Madeleine Leroux

Managing Editor

Every winter at HOPE Landing, staff look forward to the arrival of the group they call the snowbirds - volunteers from up north who spend several months giving their time and talents to local organizations.

“We’re always so excited when they come,” said Jenny Williams, director of marketing and relations for HOPE Landing. “They’ve been coming here for years.”

On Tuesday, three of the snowbirds — Mervin Mast, William Hershberger and Al Longenecker — were hard at work on a new art room at HOPE Landing, finishing painting the walls and ceiling before beginning to clean up the floor. Williams said the art room is in honor of a previous client at HOPE Landing who has since passed; the room has been painted purple, as it was that client’s favorite color.

Mast, Hershberger and Longenecker are all from northern Indiana, thus the snowbirds moniker. As Mast put it, “we just get out of the cold!”

The three began volunteering in El Dorado through what’s called SOOP — service opportunities for older people — which is run through the Mennonite Mission Network, headquartered in Elkhart, Indiana. The organization is actually nondenominational, Mast said, and provides opportunities for people to travel to communities and volunteer.

Information from the network specifies that, despite the name, SOOP is actually available for adults of all ages, providing short-term service opportunities in missional faith communities across North America. Placements can range from a week to several months.

The three snowbirds at HOPE Landing are not the only volunteers from SOOP in the area. Mast said there are a few others placed with other agencies in the area, including at The Salvation Army and the Interfaith Clinic. According to the Mennonite Mission Network, volunteers can be placed with local senior centers, nursing homes, Habitat for Humanity, the El Dorado Boys and Girls Club and even tutoring in local schools.

When SOOP volunteers arrive in El Dorado, they typically stay in rooms at Mennonite Ministries on North Murphy Avenue. Mast said there are eight rooms there that are typically set aside in the winter months for the SOOP volunteers.

Mast said the volunteers simply go to whatever agency where they can find a job that needs to be done, often working through El Dorado Connections for placement. But Williams said they always show up at HOPE Landing, especially Mast himself, who is so familiar with the property that he knows where things like brooms and cleaning supplies are kept.

But Mast has a reason to be more familiar with the local area; he previously lived in El Dorado for 30 years, before heading up north. That’s part of why it’s so great to come back and volunteer, he said.

“We have lots of friends here,” Mast said.

For the snowbirds at HOPE Landing, Mast said they arrived at the beginning of January and will stay until March or April. After the art room, Williams said there are still projects be to taken on, including some work in the barn and on a door in a caretaker’s home. They’ve already built a half-door in the main facility to help keep children from running circles around the place, staff and family members, Williams said, and in past years, they’ve done and taken on other tasks, such as tearing up carpet and laying down floors.

“And we’re open to some more things,” Mast added with a laugh.

For Williams and the others at HOPE Landing, the SOOP volunteers are always a welcome addition.

“There’s nothing they won’t do,” Williams said, noting that the facility is aging and there’s always something that needs work.

Williams said that for HOPE Landing, the work of these volunteers helps keep the organization’s limited resources focused on the most important thing: serving the children.

“The families that are here understand that these guys are really doing it for them,” she said.

Mast said his favorite part of working at HOPE Landing is simply meeting the people there, noting that El Dorado has always been a particularly welcoming and warm community.

“People are so nice here,” Mast said.

Madeleine Leroux can be reached at 870-862-6611 or [email protected].

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