- [Narrator] Live from your public media studios, WVIA presents "Keystone Edition Reports," a news and public affairs program that goes beyond the headlines to address issues in Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania.

This is "Keystone Edition Reports."

And now moderator, Julie Sidoni.

- Welcome to "Keystone Edition Reports."

I'm Julie Sidoni, the director of journalism at WVIA.

There are tens of thousands of nonprofit organizations in Pennsylvania, millions of people employed by them according to research firm, Cause IQ.

And we can't forget the countless people who volunteer their time and talents to many of those organizations to keep them afloat.

We're focusing on the season of giving in this "Keystone Edition Reports."

Several nonprofits in Scranton give to the community year round, but during the holidays, they team up to make the season special for children and their families.

WVIA News's, Haley O'Brien, spoke to some of the people who make that magic happen.

(logo whooshes) - The donations come from all over.

It's part of their holiday traditions to give and support our efforts.

So some of them are families, some of them are some of the small businesses in the area that will donate products.

Sometimes it's could be makeup, you know, from a boutique or hair products from a salon.

Some of the big box stores are very good to us as well.

- It is magical.

You come in and you see those hundreds of the plushy toys and the stuffed animals, and all arranged for kids.

It's beautiful, the community comes together, Lackawanna County comes together to take care of their own.

And I'm proud of them.

I love the volunteers.

I need to give a hat tip to the staff, all of our staff across the agencies, because their day-to-day jobs don't stop.

- The housing, the immigration work, the food insecurity work continues during the holidays.

And on top of that, our staff are expected to do these programs.

And we needed to take care of not only our community, but our staff, and so this was a way for us to do that, which is pooling all of our resources together, reaching out to other community resources like the University of Scranton.

- The logistics of all of this, to get all of that moved over to the University of Scranton, to get it moved around within the University of Scranton, to get it all set up, volunteers are really important for this.

We have roughly 300 over three days, but we can always use more.

We have to move all of that stuff around, people who can use pallet jacks, people who can lift boxes, who can carry them to the different tables while everyone's putting out.

So it's a lot of moving and a lot of lifting and a lot of backbreaking activity that we could definitely use more volunteers.

- Definitely use more volunteers is something of a theme that we hear at WVIA, which is partially what spurred us on to do a show like this.

And I am joined tonight by WVIA's Haley O'Brien and Meghan Loftus, the president and CEO of Friends of the Poor in Scranton.

Thank you both so much for joining me tonight.

- Thank you for having me.

- I would like to start with talking about that video there.

I know there was a lot of toy giveaway, but can we talk a little bit about what you specifically are doing, Meghan, in your organization?

What kind of things you are seeing in your role?

- Our main mission is just to ease the burden of living in poverty.

So we do that in a lot of different ways.

Largely, it's food insecurity that we focus on.

We have about 15 food pantries across Lackawanna County that serves roughly 120,000 people a year.

But we also provide furniture, clothing, household items.

We have a water utility assistance program.

We have after-school programs for children, summer camps.

And then we do a lot of seasonal activities like our Christmas toy giveaway, our Thanksgiving dinner, our Easter dinner.

So really any needs that the community has, we try to respond to.

- [Julie] And what kind of a force of volunteers do you need to make all of that happen every year?

- You know, when I first started at Friends of the Poor about seven and a half years ago, it was just myself and one other staff member.

And we've now grown to have with about 17 staff.

However, you cannot serve 120 to 140,000 people with 17.

So it goes without saying how many volunteers we need to make that work.

We have people who come every day, we have people who come once a week on regular shifts.

And then for our special events, like our holiday events, we have hundreds and hundreds of people who will come out, and it's part of their family tradition, part of their, you know, childhood growing up, and now they're bringing their kids and their grandkids to help, and that's really what makes it work.

And we could never hand out 5,000 toys without having hundreds of volunteers to help us do that.

- And you're talking about one giveaway in one county in this state, I mean- - Yes!

- This has to be going on all over the place.

- And nationwide, without a doubt.

- Haley, I wanna turn to you, you've done some reporting around this recently.

Any big surprises or any research that you've done that you just didn't believe?

- What surprised me about "Gifts for Kids" was just the amount of children they're able to provide Christmas gifts for.

Last year it was more than 5,000.

This year they're on par set to provide gifts for that many children again.

So it's a large group effort.

I also looked into volunteerism in general.

In the United States, about 20% of Americans reported that they had formally volunteered in the last year, whereas 54% of people said they helped their neighbors.

So they helped somebody out but didn't quite volunteer for an organization such as Friends of the Poor.

But nationally, there is an uptick and a rebound since the COVID-19 pandemic.

- Oh, there is?

- Mm-hmm!

- That's good to hear.

Talk a little bit more about that.

- Well, in general, there's, you know, resurgence in community engagement.

People were inside their homes for so long and started to feel a little bit lonely.

And I think 2023 and 2024, we've seen a resurgence, not only in these civic activities and social services, but people getting out in the community, live theater, things like that, are picking up.

- Hmm, do you think the need is greater or not as great as it used to be, Meghan?

Or are more people just able to talk about it and say, "I need a little bit of help here?"

Is, I don't wanna use the word "stigma," but is there something that's falling away that's allowing more people to say, "I could use a little help" or, you know, what are some of the trends that you're noticing from where you sit?

- We've definitely all suffered the consequences of, you know, the COVID-19 pandemic and inflation and some economic issues.

So there are a lot more people who need the assistance.

We've noticed a trend that a lot of the people who are volunteering with us are the same people who are receiving our programs and services.

So it's people who, although they need a little bit of help, they wanna give what they can.

And that might not be money, but that can be their time.

We're also seeing, you know, that the stigma might be falling away a little bit, but I think a lot of it is all about communication.

During the pandemic, we really saw that people created all these Facebook groups and there was a lot of news reporting and a lot of, "Here's where you can go to get help."

So people who were experiencing that poverty for the first time knew where to go, and those who had already been living in it, who might not have known that the help was available now learned that.

So I think a lot of it is just word of mouth as well, that we know these programs exist, we know where to go to get help.

And a lot of it is that, you know, community reporting, like you guys are doing here, and just by talking about it, we're pulling that stigma away.

- Do you think, is it really as easy as calling up someone, calling up an organization and saying, "Hi, I wanna help," is it a little more involved than that?

Tell me how someone finds an organization that they like or that they want to give of their time to, and how onboarding, so to speak, how that goes for a new volunteer if someone's interested?

- So that's the tough part, right?

It's that, you know, you can pretty much call any nonprofit and say, "Hey, I wanna volunteer," and we need the help, so you will very often get a response of, "Yeah, of course here's our needs."

But how do we know that that's gonna be a fit?

If it's not a fit, it's not going to be a return activity for that person and it might not be worth their time or the investment from the nonprofit to train that individual.

So we really like to make sure that everybody knows what's expected of them leading into it.

We have a volunteer application on our website where we say: What's your availability?

What are you interested in?

Here's the different opportunities that we have.

And now we've actually started this program through a website called Civic Champs, where people can log in ahead of time and register and sign all the paperwork, the liability waivers, and really see what's available for them, what timeframes, and know, you know, is there heavy lifting involved, is it more person-focused, is it more office work?

So to get that fit that seems just right for you, that's something you really wanna do is really important.

And that allows us, not only to make sure that people are happy with what they're doing and feeling fulfilled, but also that, you know, they're coming back time and time again because they feel like we're really recognizing who they are as an individual, what their talents are, and putting them to the best use.

- Hmm, have you seen, Haley, I'll throw this one at you, is there an age range that you noticed in your reporting, people who are volunteering or are organizations looking for, say, "We're younger volunteers, volunteers that can move things to your point?

Like, do we need to take big bags of something from here to there?"

You know, are there specifics, or are there certain volunteers that you find show up all the time?

- It's mostly the older folks.

From what I've seen from us census data, that's what it shows is basically people 50 and older are the most commonly volunteering.

And I'm sure organizations are trying to target the younger folks and get them more involved.

- I'm sure the older population, I mean, I would think have the most time if they are retired or no longer working or that sort of thing.

I'll throw that question at you as well.

What do you see, is there a specific age, a specific group of people who are coming out now, or that you wish were coming out now?

- So we definitely do have a lot of retired people that are, you know, looking for ways to give back to their community, and to your point, have the time to do it.

A lot of people in our generation, you know, you have to be a dual-income family to make ends meet.

And if you have children and those childcare responsibilities, or are in school, there's just a lot of things that are holding you back, and maybe your time, your ability to volunteer is from home, or is only at nights, or only on a certain weekend day, and maybe our agencies aren't open then.

So what we're really seeing is in order to engage that younger population and get them involved, because statistics show, and we've seen anecdotally that if we get people involved early on, they stay involved throughout their entire career and they tend to give back more and return and bring others with them.

So when we want that younger generation to be involved, we have to do things at nights and on weekends.

And that's part of, you know, our "Gifts for Kids" program, we shifted to the weekend, not only to help working parents be able to come and utilize the services, but to get more people involved who can't come Monday through Friday, 9 to 5.

- Mm-hmm, did you see any generational examples, Haley, in your reporting, people who had their mom or dad with them or brought their kids?

Nothing you can think of?

- Nothing I can think of.

I mean, I think a lot of high school students, they have a requirement to fulfill a volunteerism hours, and then maybe, you know, with everybody's career, people get busy in their 30s and their 40s, they raise a family, and then once they get older and they have a little more time on their hands, maybe that's when they're giving back a little bit more to their community.

- I realize this is a broad question, but is there a... You know, we're talking a lot about, we're in the holidays here, so food and clothing and toys and that sort of thing.

Are there organizations that we're not even thinking of that could use volunteers that people don't normally hear about?

I would say Friends of the Poor gets a lot of press, you know, people know that that organization is out there.

But what other types of organizations are out there that would need help, that as an example, we just wouldn't even know they're there?

- Right, I think that around the holiday season, to your point, there's a lot of press and there's a lot of attention around, "It's very cold outside."

So shelter and clothing and food are things that we think about, and we tend to get a lot more donations of food during the holiday season because people are thinking about it.

But the need exists year round and the individuals who need assistance don't just need it around Christmas time.

So we try to use our platform at this time to say, "Hey, this happens in the spring and in the summer and in the fall."

I would also say the animal shelters, you know, maybe people aren't thinking about them as much because we're focusing on, you know, shelter and food for human beings.

But there's a lot of, you know, research and a lot of things that we see with animal shelters that people get pets as gifts, and then they end up going to the shelter, unfortunately.

And so that's something that we also take donations for, not because we serve animals, but because we partner so much with so many other agencies that if we get donations of animal food or linens that we can't give, like reuse or give to people, we take them up to Griffin Pond and to other animal shelters because they can use them for theirs.

So I think there's no wrong door, there's no place that you cannot volunteer, that you cannot donate something, because then what our agencies do, you know, is survival and maximizing resources, is share them with the agencies that can utilize them.

- Well, one of my last questions is actually just a bit of a silly one.

I'd love to know if there's been a gift that you ever got, a gift of time, or otherwise, that you very much appreciated, or a story, anecdotally, that you have seen in your time at Friends of the Poor?

- So I have seen quite a few, you know, parents bringing their children and grandparents bringing their grandchildren to volunteer.

And so seeing that become a holiday tradition is one of my favorite things because it's so heartwarming that there are people who, instead of looking at the holiday break as a, "Oh, it's a break, I'm gonna go home and I'm gonna binge this series, and I'm gonna, you know, lounge," what they're looking forward to most is coming and giving back to the community.. And the kids have fun with it.

And when they have fun with it, and that's a core memory they're creating at that age, they're more likely to give back long term, and then to their adulthood and to give that to their children.

And so it's really something that's important to me, not only because it's my profession, but because it's how I grew up, and I'm trying to do the same with my kids.

I mean, my 4 1/2 year old comes to our Thanksgiving giveaway and he pushes the pallet jack empty, I'm not gonna let him push it into anything, but pushes it and says, "Look, mommy, I'm moving the food, I'm moving the cart."

And so just having people learn that from that age means we'll have that much more of an engaged society, you know, 10, 20, 30 years down the road.

- Any great holiday memory of yours?

- You know, nothing I can remember right now, but I will say that reporting on this story definitely put me in the holiday spirit and inspired me.

It really is eye-opening to look into "Gifts for Kids" and see how many different organizations are involved.

And we all remember Christmas morning and how great that feeling is to have presents picked out for you by your parents.

So it's amazing to see that people in our community are doing this for not for themselves, for others.

- That's wonderful, Haley and Meghan, thanks to you both.

We spoke with people in Downtown Scranton.

We wanted to know what everybody else said about this, and those people shared their fondest memories of the holiday season.

(logo whooshes) - Best Christmas gift I ever got was a puppy.

The most memorable Christmas gift ever was having my dad come see me from military when I was 10.

- What inspires me is baking cookies, going to my church, and praying with my friends from church and my pastor, seeing the Christmas lights, the Christmas trees here at the courthouse, that really inspires me.

- For me it's just the, you know, the holiday decorations coming up, and like, you know, the temperature starts getting colder and it's just that right temperature that just gives you like that giddiness, you know, the holiday cheer and all that stuff.

I feel like, you know, at the end of the year, and like people going away for the holidays, it feels like there's just something magical in the air during that time.

- The most important thing for me in the holidays is spending time with your family and your loved ones.

I spent five years in the military and I spent many holidays away from my family and my friends.

And so I most enjoy being able to purposely set time aside to spend time with those that you love and your family members.

- The most memorable holiday gets I've ever gotten, my uncle, Jeff Crass, had to get a heart transplants in getting to go down to the Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia in December, about 10 years ago now, it's gotta be the most memorable.

It gave him many more years with us, and we gravely miss him, but very much appreciated it.

- The best holiday gift was when I got a little puppy, and I just loved him for so many years.

The most memorable gift was a trip to Disney.

I absolutely love going to Disney World, and that was definitely very memorable.

- What inspires me during the holiday is that everybody's happy.

They have food on the table, they're around good people with good spirits, you know?

That's the basic, and that you can help somebody out or give them some food if somebody needs something because I'm just wishing everybody to have a happy holiday.

(gentle music) - And coming up, Lisa Mazzarella, is host of a new program on WVIA Radio called "Community Connection."

She's gonna be here to share details about that feature and continue our discussion about the important work of nonprofits.

You have a story to tell.

News is happening all around you, in your neighborhood, in your community.

WVIA News is capturing those stories- - This is WVIA News.

- We have a reputation for serving the community for over 50 years, because WVIA News is not-for-profit, we're for you.

These are your stories, your neighborhoods, cities, farms, communities, schools.

We're finding the stories that impact you, and you can find us at wvia.org.

WVIA recently debuted a new program called "Community Connection."

It's dedicated to the hard work of nonprofits all throughout our area.

(logo whooshes) - I'm Lisa Mazzarella from WVIA Radio.

"Community Connection" is something that is near and dear to my heart, because I've always loved working with nonprofit organizations and the mission of the nonprofit organizations.

Now, WVIA is a nonprofit organization, and although I've been here for over three decades, I did have a nonprofit organization experience early on when I was with the Red Cross.

And it's there that I really learned the importance of mission and dedication, and how people really do a lot and don't get a lot except a "Thank you" for all the work they do.

And yet they come back over and over and over again.

And the reason why is because they're invested in the work they're able to do to help out the respective mission.

- [Julie] And our own Lisa Mazzarella joins us now to talk about "Community Connection."

Lisa, welcome to "Keystone Edition Reports."

- [Lisa] Nice to be with you, thank you.

- It's wonderful to be with you.

I would love to hear a little bit more about your experience with the Red Cross.

What got you so interested in volunteerism so many years ago?

- It was a long time ago, Julie, and what happened was I was working in New York as an admissions counselor and I needed to get back home.

The leaders in New York stayed at heart.

And so I got back home, and I got a job at the Red Cross, and that's where I learned about, ooh, the mission of nonprofit organizations, you're the director of youth, volunteers, That's great, also nursing, children's program.

So then I realized that it's hats upon hats upon hats.

And so you do it and you try your very best at everything that you're asked to do.

And that's how you learn discipline, and that's how you learn how important people are in different disciplines.

You get to network very quickly.

And when I was in my 20s, I learned so much from so many people.

- So what do you hope to do with "Community Connection" now that you are in a position of being able to help point out some of the great nonprofits that are here?

- I am hoping that, you know, I was listening to the volunteerism and the woe of volunteerism.

I'm hoping that "Community Connection" might bolster volunteerism.

I'm also hoping it will bolster a little bit of hope in nonprofit organizations.

Not just to say, "I need this," but "I can give you this, I can help you with this."

And it doesn't have to be every week, it doesn't have to be every year.

It could be maybe once a month, twice a month, show up, show your face, allow your voice and allow your talents to be utilized.

- Was it a surprise to you what kind of need there was in this area?

- It didn't surprise me because of COVID.

I knew that that pretty, that was really kind of the thing that pushed things back a lot.

But now that we're able to get out a little more frequently, there's no excuse, no excuse.

- Talk a bit about what volunteerism does for you as a person, that yes, we can help our neighbors and we can help people who need it, but what do you get?

And I don't wanna make it a selfish thing, of course it's not, but what are some of the benefits that a volunteer might get from giving of their time?

- There are many reasons people become a volunteer, and whether you're young and maybe you are just waiting for school to start, or maybe you're in between opportunities, maybe you're recently widowed, maybe you just had an operation and the recovery is slow, but yet you still wanna get out and wanna be part of the action, there's lots of reasons why people come to volunteer.

And they have their own baggage, if you will, when they come into volunteer.

And that's why when you sit down and you talk with them and you hear where they are and where they wish to go with this project that they have in front of them.

It helps them, it helps you, and it also helps the person feel that sense of purpose.

I think everybody, no matter how old they are or how young they are, they want to feel a sense of purpose.

And when they are going to a voluntary organization that really resonates with them, maybe a parent died of cancer or maybe they had a relative who was ill with cancer, they gravitate toward the Cancer Society, they wanna do something good for the Cancer Society.

There are a lot of people who are hungry in our area.

Maybe they'll pack boxes of food and have them sent out to people who are our neighbors.

Lots of different reasons.

- Do you find that there is usually a personal reason at the very genesis of a nonprofit?

- Absolutely, I don't think people do it just to waste their time.

They wanna do it because they wanna get that feeling of "I'm being purposeful," yeah.

- What has been the reaction so far?

It's a relatively new feature, but I understand already nonprofits are saying, "Oh my goodness, thank you.

We needed a microphone."

- And it's true, they did.

There are nonprofit organizations that do have a lot of people that help with their marketing and they're able to put out very slick publications about "We need the money," and they're able to make it very, very nice.

There are lots of non-profit organizations that do not have that.

They are lucky if they're able to get an 8 by 11 piece of paper out in the mail to you and saying, "Can you help us?"

- Mm-hmm!

- So for what I've received thus far, the comments that I've gotten thus far, I guess there's a thread of gratitude from the people that I've spoken with thus far.

"Thank you very much for allowing us to be here to share our story with you, with the hope that maybe there'll be some attention given to us in the form of a donation, in the form of volunteerism," which is something that is you can't... Money can't buy that, you know, that is just something that is indispensable.

So being a volunteer is something that's so important, and I think it really enriches the person's life too.

Makes you think differently, doesn't make yourself self-centered, and it makes you realize that you have a tendency to be like this a lot of times, but it makes you a little bit more panoramic in your vision.

- You say no excuses- - No excuses, no.

- So what's your hope for either this program or the feature that you will be doing weekly now, and we hope for a very long time to come?

What's your hope?

- Well, my hope is that people will listen, people will be perked up and they'll be enthused about something that they hear on "Community Connection."

My hope is that the volunteer organizations that come in to speak with us and they use WVIA as that megaphone for themselves, I hope that they are able to reap the benefits of volunteerism and a little more attention, and get that little extra bit of love.

"I heard you on the radio, how can I help you?"

That's the kind of stuff I'd like to hear.

- I even liked when Haley pointed out that there's volunteerism for an organization, but you can also just check on your neighbor next door, that's still volunteerism.

- Absolutely, absolutely, checking on your neighbor next door.

I mean, we're doing things all the time, kind things all the time.

So why not do it for an organization?

This way, you're part of somebody that you're able to meet a whole group of individuals, like-minded, that wanna do the same thing.

They just wanna do a good job and they wanna be purposeful.

- Is it on purpose that we're doing this right around the holiday season?

I mean, perhaps not, but it seems like a nice time to debut it and and roll it out.

Anything you will be volunteering or doing around for the holiday season, or how might you give of your time?

- Well, you know, I have had an opportunity to speak with a couple of very good nonprofit organizations, and I'm just gonna try to give them a little donation, just to give them a little extra attention.

Not only just getting them on the air and having them tell their story, but they do have a story to tell, and a little bit of money doesn't hurt either.

- Mm-hmm, that's... - Five, $10.

- Always true.

- Yeah.

- Lisa Mazzarella, you are a gem.

I'm so happy that you're here with us tonight and I can't wait to see what "Community Connection" does.

- Me too, me too.

- Great, thank you- - And happy holidays.

- Thank you!

Now, we've covered a lot on this show.

Maybe you have a question or a thought about something we didn't cover.

If that's true, we'd love to hear from you.

Head over to our page and submit your questions.

We might just answer it on our new YouTube show called "The Loop," Friday afternoons.

By the way, this and every episode of "Keystone Edition" is available on demand on our YouTube channel, and now as a special audio podcast, so you will never miss an episode.

Visit wvia.org/keystoneeditionreports to stream episodes or subscribe to the podcast.

For all of us here at WVIA, enjoy your holiday season, and we will see you next time.

(upbeat music)