Not all nonprofit organizations have jobs for teenage volunteers, but the Value Village thrift stores operated by Arc Greater Twin Cities (952-915-3652, www.arcgreatertwincities.org/volunteer.aspx) welcome every pair of hands.
They're too busy not to. At the Richfield location alone, for example, an average of 300 donors come through each day, dropping off 10,000 pounds of household items, not including clothing. That's a lot of unpacking and sorting and folding and hanging and shelving.
Last year, 4,500 people put in 80,000 volunteer hours throughout Arc's four Twin Cities stores (which also include New Hope, Brooklyn Center and St. Paul; a fifth will be opening soon in Bloomington). That may sound like a lot of help, but it's not as much as Arc needs.
"No — no, never," said Molly Lindblad, volunteer development manager for the stores. "We could use probably twice that."
So Lindblad is more than happy to put young people to work. She doesn't keep records on volunteers' ages, but estimates that 30 to 40 percent are kids. Many are high-school students working on community service requirements for schools or churches.
The work can be ideal for young people; no special skills are required beyond a willingness to pitch in, she said. "The tasks we do at our stores are not exactly complicated."
The stores used to require volunteers under 16 to be accompanied by adults. But Lindblad recently decided to let 14- and 15-year-olds volunteer on their own (as long as a parent knows where they are). So far, it has worked out fine.
"We keep reinventing our volunteer program," Lindblad said. "We know we need help so much that let's not close the doors on options."
