Volunteer Opportunities

Volunteers are the backbone of the Fort Wayne Alumni Center. Since our opening on June 2, 2009, we have had over 33,000 hours given to fulfill our mission to care, connect, and celebrate! Your help once a week, a month or year would be appreciated. Here are some of the specific areas where we really need volunteers:

Working at the Alumni Center

Office Assistant - Person would answer the phone, greet visitors, and organize records and submitted materials.  Greatest need is on Tuesday and/or Thursday mornings from 9:00AM - 12:00PM.

Archive Support Assistant - Person would digitize documents or pictures, upload/transfer digital files. Great amount of work to do to update the Archives. Training would be provided.

Other Opportunities - Organizing and listing submitted materials; Helping with events - committee work, running errands, assembling materials, hosting, etc. Planting and caring for flowers in the spring and summer.

Working from home

Proof Readers - Would you be willing to be on call to proofread web content, articles for the web and the FW Falcon eNewsletter? I need two to four individuals who would be on a list for me to call or email asking for proofing help.

Writing Thank you Notes - Person would write Thank You notes and Get-Well cards to supplement our FW Alumni Volunteer Prayer Team. We  would provide the cards, envelopes, and  stamps if you would be willing to hand-write the notes to CARE & CONNECT.

Feature Writers - Person would write one article a month, a quarter, or twice a year for the FW Falcon, FW Vine, or the web. Some experience in feature writing is needed to help tell these stories.

Graphic Artist - Design items needed at the Center such as special artwork for the web, book covers, web or Facebook graphics, response cards, and post cards. Graphic artist skills and software is needed.

Home & Center

Distinguished Campus Servants - Someone to write Distinguished Campus Servant Articles, corresponding, calling, or visiting an assigned person who qualifies for this honor. The Center provides the name. Task would involve writing the article based on archive records and photos and interview, if possible,  The story would be reviewed and posted to the Alumni Heritage website.

Where are they now? - Someone to write Where Are They Now features. Person would write or call an assigned faculty or staff member, ask questions based on the form supplied and submit their answers.  The story would be an interview and Q&A format.

Videographer - Person would make, shoot and render video clips for use on the web and Facebook. we also have other clips or pictures that could be put into a collage.

You may contact Stephanie Demorest g93, office manager for the FW Alumni Center at 260.744.8790 or email her at alumnifw@taylor.edu. To volunteer specifically in the Archive, please contact Dr. Jay Platte g69, volunteer archive coordinator by email at fwarchives@taylor.edu.

Prayer Team

Each week, prayer requests are submitted throughout the country and world from alumni, friends and Taylor students and staff. A volunteer alumni prayer team receives these requests from our Fort Wayne Alumni Prayer Co-Coordinators, Shellie (Kale) Burden g91 and Cathy (Diller) Schrock g90. These volunteers include former administrators, faculty, staff, alumni and friends. If you feel compelled by God to regularly pray for these requests by joining our Fort Wayne Alumni Volunteer Prayer Team, please email alumnifw@taylor.edu. If you have a prayer concern, please write or call us at 260.744.8790.

Volunteer Spotlight

Peg (DuPree) Buuck g67

By Paige McNinch g20

Peg Buuck HeadshotPeg (DuPree) Buuck g67 was originally connected to your Alumni Center in a time of immense trial and pain. Following her husband Lon’s accident in 2016, she reached out for support and prayers. “They prayed for us through the whole ordeal, and I got reconnected with a gal I knew who was in my class, [Sharon (Walter) Hull g67], and she was just a champion,” Peg recalled. After nine months, Lon unfortunately passed away, but Peg remained connected with the Alumni Center, leaning on their prayers and support.

Inspired by the Alumni Center’s care, Peg decided to start volunteering, when asked by Michael Mortensen g91, as a way to give Peg Buuck with Sharon Hullback. “They were there when I needed them, and they prayed for me,” she said. “I guess I’m just really grateful that they were there to help me in my time of need, and I feel that it’s important for me to help in return.”

Despite her short time on the volunteer team, she already knows that the work she’s done and will do will all be for the glory of God. “God’s will for me is the same as it always has been my whole life. It’s to glorify him,” she said. “It’s not the work you do; I mean, it is, because he leads you into things that he’s given you gifts to do, but how I see God’s will for me right now is to glorify him whatever he puts in front of me to do.”

Although she hasn’t had the opportunity to do much for the center, Peg is willing to do whatever is needed to help out. “There’s just a feeling of grace and camaraderie,” she noted. “I enjoy being around Christians who love the Lord and are trying to accomplish something.”

Peg’s servant heart has been a blessing to many already. During one of the Alumni Center’s busiest seasons, Reunion Weekend Fall 2019, Peg was willing to work with another volunteer to assemble the 50th Reunion Class Memory booklets and to prepare the nametags. Stephanie (Cox) Demorest g93, Alumni Center Coordinator, says that Peg’s assistance was “invaluable in finalizing reunion preparations.”

Not only financial donations, but also volunteer services, keep the ministry of your Fort Wayne Alumni Center alive and moving forward.

Editor’s Note: Might you have a couple hours or more available during a month, where you can volunteer, like Peg? Click here to communicate with Stephanie.