By Mel Rubenstein

Volunteers who have been featured in this column have come to me in a number of ways. Some were recommended by a friend, some were from reading an article about them, and others came from listening to guest speakers at Dewitt Rotary meetings. The volunteer for this month did not come from any of those sources.

One day, out of the blue, I wondered if police departments use volunteers to accomplish their mission.

So, living in Manlius, I contacted Michael Crowell, police chief of the Town of Manlius. And here was his answer: “I contacted our principal volunteer and he indicated that he would be happy to participate. It should be a great interview as he informed me that you have known each other for 70 years! Arnie Poltenson has been an excellent asset to our organization and I consider him a good friend.”

Needless to say I am excited about featuring Arnie Poltenson as the Volunteer of the Month.
The Town of Manlius Police Department offered a “Police Academy” for interested citizens a few years ago.

Poltenson took the ten-week class which covered everything including traffic infractions, use of force, evidence, domestic situations, the justice center and the 911 response facility, firearms safety and community policing. Poltenson helped develop a long-range strategic plan for the police department and after that was completed he asked the chief if he could use any volunteers to help with some of the administrative work that needed to be done that was presently taking time from patrol work.

“We have just started a core of volunteers who will be helping with scanning old paper records on to digital media for long term storage and other tasks that come up after the COVID-19 shutdown is lifted,” he said.

The Town of Manlius Police Department is much more than a police force, and the list of its activities that make our community a better place was a revelation to Poltenson.

They do an open house in June, a Shop with a Cop for children of families in need at Christmas, car seat service, monitoring homes of people away on vacation, drug education, and they provide School Information Resource Officers for the F-M and ES-M school districts.

Poltenson was born in Syracuse, attended Nottingham High School, then received a bachelor of arts degree at Amherst College. After spending the next three years in the navy, Poltenson went to work for the Salina Press, a commercial printing company. He went on to become the company’s president and the owner.

On leaving Salina Press, Poltenson earned his MBA at Syracuse University where he taught as an adjunct professor in law and public policy for eight years.

He also taught at Upstate Medical University in a class called medicine and society. It was a course given to first- and second-year medical students.

It dealt with issues such as hubris: what happens when a patient doesn’t get better; what happens when a patient dies; how do you deal with a family whose parent is on life support with no hope of recovery?

“We had a weekly lecture followed by a section where we discussed the problems and tried to find answers,” Poltenson said. “Each section was taught by a doctor and a non-physician. During my time at Upstate, I taught with eight different physicians and learned an incredible amount about the challenges they face.”

In 1973, he and his wife, Judy, helped to found the Manlius chapter of A Better Chance. This program brings 10 to 12 inner city girls, aged 14 to 15, to spend three years living in a group home with an adult couple, attending classes at F-M High School and receiving tutoring from college students. They go on to the best colleges in the country and many have achieved graduate degrees.

The position of being an ombudsman is not for everyone, but Poltenson was up to the job. He explained: “The ombudsman job is to advocate for the patients, under the aegis of the NYS Department of Health. It gave me entrée to the assisted living and nursing home community. Most of my time was spent listening to concerns from the residents about conditions in the nursing home, staff complaints, services provided (or not provided) by the management. This was the opportunity to work with truly committed and competent nurses and home health aides serving the senior adult community.”

Poltenson said: “Through my work at Upstate, I met Dr. Joel Potash who was the medical director of Hospice of CNY. I took the course on being a hospice volunteer and was the caregiver for 13 individuals. It was a profound experience and gave me an appreciation of how important it is to live each day fully. Much of my volunteering is a way to give back to those less fortunate. I spent four years as a volunteer, and while doing this work, I was asked to become an employee of Hospice as administrator, which I did for two years.”

Poltenson became the director of development for the CNY Community Foundation, a position he held for six years.

“During my time as director of development, I met with most of the estate attorneys in Central New York, not to ask them for money, but rather to let them know that if they had clients with charitable inclinations, the CNY Community Foundation had excellent ways to help them enhance their charitable giving,” he said. “It proved to be a win-win for both the clients and the community.”

ESOL is the abbreviation for English for Speakers of Other Languages.  It used to be ESL which means English as a Second Language.

“For the past six years I have been ‘on loan’ to BOCES as a tutor for students trying to attain their high school equivalency,” he said. “The students are adults ranging in age from 18 to 55 plus. They are stuck in low paying jobs and want to provide a better life for their families. They are an inspiration to me to see the dedication they bring to their studies, especially since many of them have learning disabilities.”

It’s hard to know where Poltenson finds the time, but he enjoys reading, gardening, cooking, traveling, bridge, golf and singing.

“I started singing in fifth grade at Charles Andrews, sang for four years at Nottingham, four years in college, and when I returned from service, I joined the Syracuse Chorale for 15 years and the Syracuse Oratorio Society for 15 years,” he said. “I still enjoy singing today.”

All of the time he has given as a volunteer has been rewarding.

“I have received far more that I have given as a volunteer,” he said. “The satisfaction of seeing a student grasp a concept that had eluded him, or watching the smile of an elderly person in a nursing home, is far more rewarding than one can imagine. It also reminds me that one can be useful in so many ways, even after a career in the for-profit economy.”

Poltenson’s current not-for-profit employer is his wife, Judy. They have three daughters and five grandchildren.

To recommend someone with a record of volunteering to be featured in this column contact Mel Rubenstein at [email protected] or 315-682-7162.