By Ashley M. Casey
Associate Editor
PAC-B TV is saying goodbye to a roommate, and Lysander Town Hall is gaining a tenant: The Baldwinsville Volunteer Center is moving its offices from the house at 8 Mechanic St. to the Heart, Home and Community B-Share co-work space at 8220 Loop Road.
“We wanted to be able to be more accessible,” said Barb Presley, president of the BVC Board of Directors. “We needed a little bit more openness to be able to collect the items that we want to share with the food pantry, the VFW and Meals on Wheels through the HELP Project. This opportunity became something that answered questions that we didn’t even know we had.”
Presley said PAC-B needed room to grow as its video offerings expand, and the BVC was looking for more visibility and space for donations for the Household Essentials for Living Pantry (HELP) Project, Baldwinsville Christmas Bureau and other local causes.
The BVC’s new address is official as of Oct. 12, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the office is still closed to the public. Presley said she is hoping the office will be able to open to in-person traffic soon.
“The challenging part has been how to stay relevant in the community when the office is closed, when we could not employ our office manager,” she said. “I feel that board members have stepped up and taken on that real volunteer role, trying to make sure that communication and emails and phone calls stay answered.”
While the pandemic forced the BVC to furlough office manager Mandi Fuller-Bulawa, the board is hoping to bring her back soon. Fuller-Bulawa has continued to volunteer for the BVC by brainstorming marketing and event ideas with RUSSETT PR’s Lauren Russett and helping the BVC move into its new digs.
“I’m kind of hoping once we get moved in we can do a grand kickoff event,” Fuller-Bulawa said.
The volunteer center may have a new home outside the village, but its heart remains in Baldwinsville, Presley said.
“By moving to the town of Lysander and out of the village we were a little worried about losing that [identity],” she said. “It’s so long been a village-centered site. It becomes your identity. … We just didn’t want anyone to misconstrue or misunderstand … that we are an organization looking to serve anything other than the greater Baldwinsville community.”
The Baldwinsville Volunteer Center, founded in 1964 as a branch of the Volunteer Center of Syracuse and Onondaga County, serves people in need within the boundaries of the Baldwinsville Central School District. The center became an independent agency in 1998. Among the center’s offerings are the Baldwinsville Christmas Bureau and annual Thanksgiving baskets, which allow B’ville families in need to have holiday celebrations; a vision services referral partnership with the Baldwinsville Central School District, Lions Club and Malara Eyecare; the Man and Woman Volunteer of the Year Award, the Volunteer Recruitment Fair and the HELP Project, which supplements local food pantries.
“We have continued to do donation drives and we have also collected monetary donations from very, very, very generous people,” Presley said. “Alumni classes have taken it upon themselves to adopt us so we can shop for stuff, supplies the pantries need.”
As the holiday season approaches, the BVC is finalizing registration details and donation drop-off locations for the Christmas Bureau, which traditionally has held registration in person.
“You can’t do that same kind of face-to-face gathering that we might have had in the past for registering families,” Presley said of the pandemic.
Presley said the phone number and other contact information remain the same for the BVC. The office can be reached at 315-638-0251, [email protected] or bvillevolunteers.org.
“I would ask the community to just be aware that we are still in the business of doing our business,” Presley said. “We are very much here to make sure that anybody that we can help through volunteerism or donations or if anyone have any requests … to please reach out. It’s been our mission from the very beginning.”
