Summer Davidson has been a library patron for years, especially as a stay-at-home mom who homeschooled her children. Those children are growing up and needing her less, so when she saw a poster advertising a need for people to help with Draper Library’s All Ability Activities for teens and adults with intellectual disabilities, she decided to volunteer. 

“I went the first time and it was such a great experience that I wanted to keep going back. The whole environment is positive. The librarians that facilitate it are upbeat and welcoming and the participants are accepting, warmhearted, authentic and sincere. Just being with them feels like I’m helping them become involved with a wider community. It’s doing good!” Davidson said. 

The program started six years ago under branch manager Sarah Brinkerhoff. Through the years, library staff fine-tuned the activities and figured out how to accommodate people with mobility devices including wheelchairs and walkers. They also learned to expect and invite groups from care homes and transitional schools in the area. “It has grown enormously,” Brinkerhoff said. 

Because of the high demand, the library offers the program three times per month from September to May and twice per month during the summer. Summer months bring more youth volunteers because school is out, but the need for volunteers is especially great September to May. “This is such a fabulous program and a wonderful opportunity to volunteer with a community that can be so isolated. We’d really like to get more volunteers,” Brinkerhoff said. 

November’s programs brought 278 total participants with very few volunteers. Sixty-two participants came one day, 102 another, and 114 came the Friday before Thanksgiving. 

Attendance is on a drop-in basis for participants. They come for 30-45 minutes to complete the craft and then leave, making room for more participants to come and go. Volunteers are asked to stay for the duration. Most often it’s a craft with a fun theme such as learning about animals in winter, outer space, or making a gingerbread-type house out of graham crackers. Twice each year they play bingo instead of creating crafts. 

“What we want with our volunteers is someone who can sit and talk at a table and help them get started with their crafts. Some individuals have high support needs. Some are non-verbal. You don’t have to be talented with crafts, it’s just things like opening markers, taking the backs off of stickers, tying knots, things that are hard if you have fine motor skill issues, but things you might take for granted being able to do. Having volunteers means caregivers are still there helping but participants aren’t left waiting for their caregiver to get them started on a project or craft,” Brinkerhoff said. 

Because caregivers come with participants, a volunteer’s role is simply to talk with participants and help them with the craft. It’s never the role of a volunteer to manage the behavior of participants, but volunteering does require some patience. “We have one patron that likes to tell jokes and recite the alphabet backwards,” Brinkerhoff said. 

“There’s this one young man who repeats the same things over and over, but it’s with a huge smile, so I’ll think of different responses. I can’t not look at him without his smile being contagious to me. He’s so happy and cheerful that I can’t help smile myself,” Davidson said. 

Volunteers preferably help with one two-hour session each month and they must first pass a background check, designed for the safety of the participants. “You could try it, see if you like it, and decide if you want to keep coming. It’s really rewarding for our volunteers too because you’re getting someone who is so excited to be shown some attention, something that’s hard to quantify,” Brinkerhoff said. Volunteers under the age of 16 must come with a parent and volunteers under age 14 are considered on a case-by-case basis. 

There are flexible volunteer opportunities as well. People can support the program by preparing and assembling activity kits for the crafts on their own time or in their own home. Brinkerhoff told the story of a woman who is fighting cancer, but when she’s feeling up to it, she works on assembling the activity kits at her home and has her neighbor deliver them to the library. The library keeps activity kits on hand for people with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers to take home in case coming to the programs proves to be too difficult, so assembling those activity kits is another thing volunteers can assist with.

Both Brinkerhoff and Davidson say the most important thing about the program is helping a group that can often be isolated feel part of the community instead. “I feel like this activity the library has planned is really filling a need because it’s so well attended,” Davidson said. 

Brinkerhoff explained that adults with intellectual disabilities often don’t have control over their own lives. “Building those connections is really hard if you don’t have control. Participants form relationships with volunteers because they’re people you see every month so you’re not so isolated, helping you feel connected to the world outside. That’s a beautiful thing,” Brinkerhoff said. 

It’s not just the participants who gain a sense of connection. That happens for volunteers too. “We all need those connections. A lot of us in the world are isolated. Volunteering at the library helps people feel more connected to other people and to their community. We all could use more of that connection,” Brinkerhoff said. 

Davidson has done a good deal of volunteering, but she says this is a productive way to spend her time, and this activity has become her favorite way to give back because it simultaneously gives back to her. “I leave and my heart has been warmed. I leave feeling uplifted. My step is lighter when I leave,” she said. 

Anyone interested in volunteering can contact Brinkerhoff at [email protected] or fill out an application at the library. λ