Queens’ high-risk volunteers look forward to their return to in-person action
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Volunteers who were deemed too high risk to work in person by city guidelines are starting to return to their posts. Photo courtesy of City Harvest
By Rachel Vick
When life in Queens ground to a halt last March the borough’s extensive volunteer network stepped up to help neighbors in need, but many older and at-risk volunteers had no choice but to change the ways they participated.
For 72-year-old Astoria resident Agnes “Nan” Jack, stepping away from her work with VISIONS, a program that supports blind seniors by engaging them in conversation about local and world news, was not an option.
She has led the on-site program for nine years and worked to adapt the program to a virtual model. Jack said that while volunteers and participants have always been close because of the open and judgement-free space they foster, the isolation of the pandemic only strengthened their bonds,
“Once you've been open, it's very personal and I think that’s why we became so close, during the hard times we were very much there for each other,” Jack said. “During COVID it became almost like a family unit. It’s not that we care more than your family, it’s that we care just as much.”
“The group was there not just for spreading the news, but to help and support each other and that was really important,” she added, explaining that in addition to sharing information about vaccines, they became a safe space to mourn as COVID “hit close to home” when two members died from disease and another lost her husband.
Switching the meetings to phone calls presented additional challenges for the blind participants for whom Zoom was not an option, but Jack said that everyone — including herself — soon fell into a rhythm and were grateful for the connection.
“Try managing 16 people on a phone call - it's not easy,“ Jack said. “We adapted, but we’re all dying to meet each other in person again.”
Now that everyone in the group is vaccinated, Jack said they hope to return to in-person sessions as soon as the space they use for meetings gives them the okay.
Jack, now retired, has been volunteering with New York Cares for over a decade and has always found that “volunteering opens your mind to so many different things.”
“When you volunteer you get much more out of it than you give.”
Not all volunteers were able to adapt their service to the city’s COVID reality, but the New York City guidelines were recently updated to lift the restrictions for at-risk volunteers previously asked to stay home, opening the door for some to pick back up where they left off.
For City Harvest’s Astoria Mobile Market volunteer Paul Azrak, 71, the sanctioned return to in-person volunteer activity and the connections he’s made over the years is a breath of fresh air.
“I miss my Astoria family,” Azrak said. “One of the things that has made me return time and again is the sense of community that exists there.“
One year was too much time away for 67-year-old Jim Anastasio, who said that going to a shift at the market “is not work.”
Anastasio explained that he keeps coming back because of more than one kind of warmth he experienced as a volunteer at the market.
“I was telling everyone how I was going back to City Harvest. I was excited,” he said. “A standout for me is when it’s a beautiful day, and if you get to a market early and the sun is shining and it’s not too hot—but the warmth of the place is just wonderful. And it comes from both the clients and the volunteers.
“It is the meeting of all the people and knowing everyone is there to help,” Anastasio added. “It’s a worthwhile service. It’s something I’m proud to be doing.”
