Volunteer Center closes due to lack of funding

The Volunteer Center closed its doors July 26, a day after its board voted to suspend services until proper funding could be found.

In existence for about five years, the center had difficulties with funding since the grant funding that had helped with its formation was withdrawn by the state. This, according to Board Chair Thom Burleson, was one of the center’s woes.

“To put it very simply, we’ve always had difficulty with funding because the Volunteer Center was never set up as a 501C3, so it could never raise funds for itself,” Burleson said. “Recently, the office building where it was, the Senior Center, wanted their office back. Right there, we’re faced with no funding, no office, and to rent office space requires funding. The last thing was Debbie (White, the volunteer center’s director) needed a break.”

White presented a once sentence resignation to the board at the meeting on July 25. White was not paid in her position as director. Burleson spoke of the center’s history.

“As I understand it, it started with grants from the state and after one year, that funding disappears, “he said. “Really, we’ve been operating for three years without any incoming funding. We kind of cobbled together and got money for programs. After the loss of funding, it’s been reshuffled and reorganized and reshuffled and reorganized; we just couldn’t continue on with that anymore. If there was to be a volunteer center in the future, it’s almost like this one has to get out of the way. There’s just too much baggage over the years of trying to reshuffle and little orphaned programs here and there along the way. We’re just tidying up, cleaning up (and) closing up.

“We were put in a situation where it couldn’t last forever,” Burleslon continued. “We want a true organization. We were always kind of a shadowy organization so any monies we got for programs, we had to put those monies under different people’s umbrellas. That’s part of what this cleanup process is. For example, the Vials for Life money is under the extension group. They stuck money here and there as a means of operating. there was never any firm enough structure and organization to make the thing last long enough. Every time we’d reach a crisis, we’d Band-Aid it so it could live for another six months and (another) crisis and Band-Aid. It was finally time to say it’s over. It’s a sad sort of thing.”

According to Burleson, the center’s existence, after losing initial funding received through state grant funds, is attributed to White. “She won’t accept it, but it was really Debbie who kept it alive for three years,” Burleson said. “It would have died three years ago if it weren’t for Debbie’s desire and willingness...she won’t say that, she’d say, ‘No, no, it’s other folks.’ But everybody knows it’s Debbie. It was her spirit and her work that was really keeping it going (but) you can only go for so long.”

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