CHEYENNE — From Old Bill’s Fun Run in Jackson Hole to Frontier Days in Cheyenne and AmeriCorps assignments across the state, people in Wyoming volunteer at a higher rate than the national average.
A report out Monday by the Corporation for National and Community Service said that roughly 35 percent of Wyoming residents volunteer each year, the 12th-highest rate in the nation. The national average is 27 percent.
The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit corporation oversees domestic volunteer programs including AmeriCorps, which enlists long-term volunteers for nonprofit programs, as well as Senior Corps, which enlists people over 55 for mentoring and other types of volunteering.
“Wyoming has always been a state where people care about their community and volunteer quite a bit,” said Patrick Gallizzi, Wyoming program director for the Corporation for National and Community Service.
“It goes back to the whole idea of Wyomingites being independent and also wanting to help our neighbors. We care about our communities. We’re small, so Wyoming’s like a small neighborhood.”
Wyoming residents dedicate 17 million hours of service a year, according to the corporation, which said the result is an economic benefit equivalent of about $332 million.
That works out to just under $20 an hour — an amount calculated by Independent Sector, a nationwide coalition of about 600 charities, foundations and other types of nonprofits.
The largest portion of people who volunteer in Wyoming, about 30 percent, volunteer through religious groups.
The second-largest portion, 26 percent, volunteer for educational causes, such as tutoring. Volunteering for social services (14 percent), health (7 percent), civic causes (6 percent), and sports and the arts (6 percent) rounded out Wyoming’s profile.
In Jackson, about 300 volunteers are needed every year for the Old Bill’s Fun Run, which raises money for about 200 local nonprofits through the Jackson Hole Community Foundation.
President Katharine Conover said the foundation is always able to find enough volunteers.
“Some years have been a little more difficult than others, but we’ve always managed to get the turnouts we need,” she said.
