PITTSFIELD, Mass. — For more than 50 years, generations of seniors have donated their time to community organizations in the Berkshires through the Retired Senior Volunteer Program. 

 

In 2024, its 305 volunteers committed 40,699 hours across 44 stations. It is this commitment to the community that has earned the organization and its volunteers the title of April's Community Hero of the month. 

 

The Community Hero of the Month is a 12-month series that honors individuals and organizations that have made a significant impact on their community. This year's sponsor is Window World of Western Massachusetts. Nominate a hero here. 

 

RSVP is a national organization, funded in part by AmeriCorps Seniors, and sponsored locally by the city of Pittsfield. 

 

The Berkshire County program provides recruitment, training, and placement of seniors ages 55 and over as volunteers. There is a wide range of opportunities to suit anyone's strengths and interests, volunteers said. 

 

The program connects seniors to to more than 40 businesses, organizations, and nonprofits throughout the county, including Hancock Shaker Village, American Red Cross, Berkshire  Athenaeum, Berkshire Scenic Railway, Berkshire Veterans Outreach Center, Greylock Glen Outdoor Center

Central Berkshire Habitat for Humanity, and more. 

 

State Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier demonstrated that the total value of the work contributed by these volunteers is at least $800,000 per year,  if they were to calculate the 40,000 hours of service at $20 per hour, which for many is less than what the seniors made in their careers. 

 

"I think Pittsfield, in particular, when there is an issue in Pittsfield, everyone unites, and this RSVP program just shows that there doesn't need to be a time of crisis for people to unite," Mayor Peter Marchetti said. 

 

"They're there 24/7 to volunteer their services and to make Pittsfield and the greater Berkshires a better place." 

 

Volunteers help maintain critical community services that might otherwise be unavailable or underfunded, Marchetti said.

 

iBerkshires.com announced RSVP's selection for April's Community Hero of the Month during the organization's annual volunteer luncheon. 

 

This year's theme was bees because every volunteer "like bees who are champion pollinators, [RSVP] volunteers are champions," said Lisa Torrey, RSVP director. 

 

"They are hard working, and they never give up. They keep going and going until the job is done. And, like the bees who do the important work of pollinating, which in turn supports a healthy and thriving ecosystem," 

 

"Our volunteers do their own sort of pollinating here in our community, bringing their lifelong experience and failure to each organization they help support in the many lives that they touch along the way. In turn, this creates a healthy and thriving community here in the Berkshires, the world without bees would face severe consequences. This is also the case with our volunteers.

 

Farley-Bouvier attends the luncheon yearly and expressed her admiration for the volunteers who serve as role models to her and other community members. 

 

"When we think of a hero, we're holding somebody up as an example. We're both thanking them for services, but we're saying this is what we see as an example of what we're looking for in a community, and certainly RSVP is something that we would hold up under those two things," she said. 

 

A hero is someone who puts themselves out there, volunteers, gives back, and makes a difference, Marchetti said. 

 

"I think if we talk to some of the stations and some of the organizations that RSVP volunteers for you will find out that they've made a difference, a really large difference and that's what makes them a hero," he said. 

 

The RSVP volunteers are great, generous people, said Mike Arnold, Habitat For Humanity volunteer coordinator and land and permit and administrator.

 

Several of the RSVP volunteers work at the nonprofit's thrift store, Restore, which helps it save on labor and costs, which goes back into the work Habitat For Humanity does — providing affordable homes for the community, he said. 

 

Elder Services became a station within RSVP in the past year, and there are so many programs that rely on volunteers to help keep older adults at home, said Isaac Share, Elder Services home and community-based program supervisor. 

 

"A place like RSVP enables a nonprofit to have the right amount of volunteers to maximize the amount of benefit they can provide to the community. So, by nature of RSVP, connecting volunteers to different nonprofits in the area, they support the entire community, to stay at home, to keep the streets clean, to keep people fed," Share said. 

 

"They, in many ways, keep the community going by making sure that a nonprofit that needs volunteers can get those volunteers to help people."

 

Peggy Zamierowski, RSVP board member and Elder Services volunteer coordinator, agreed and also emphasized the value of resource sharing. 

 

"An example is volunteers who sign up with RSVP and then come to a station like ours, and they might be using their vehicle to either transport someone or go to and from their volunteer work, RSVP is able to offer some extra supplemental auto insurance in case an accident happens," she said. 

 

"And a lot of people, I think, find that useful and kind of reassuring. So, that's something that agencies wouldn't be able to do on their own." 

 

Volunteers emphasized that RSVP benefits both the participating organizations (stations) and the volunteers themselves. It helps seniors form friendships and combat loneliness, while also allowing volunteers to explore new interests and maintain a sense of purpose after retirement.

 

"My father always said, 'to give is good.' He said, 'It makes you feel good to give,' and he's absolutely correct. Also, the first six months of retirement, I was going bat crazy," said Richard Dauchy, volunteer and president of the Friends of the Berkshire Athenaeum. 

 

Volunteer Peter Bergman said he was inspired to volunteer because of his love of the library. He started working at there in 1980 and was happy to discover that it had a volunteer systems and needed people. 

 

"Sometimes it's hard, I'm not completely retired. I still work as a theater critic here in the Berkshire, so I'm constantly going places, talking about things. And one of the things I do as a volunteer is to inform people who don't read me what they should go to see. What's good, what's not so good, what's hopefully good," he said. 

 

"Staying busy is one of the essential things of the retired ages. I'm turning 79 on Tuesday, and I'm trying to figure out how I can do more."