For the past five years, Meagan Coughlin has been the face of volunteerism in Columbus.
As director of the Lowndes County United Way”s Community Volunteer Center, Coughlin has been at the center of hundreds of efforts to connect those in need with those in a position to help. And as the first person to helm the CVC, she”s laid the groundwork for an exemplary clearinghouse of good will.
Coughlin”s job was two-fold — running the CVC and fulfilling additional PR duties for the United Way. In her five years on the job, the nonprofit funding agency saw the economy spiral into a recession, taking donations with it and making volunteers more essential than ever.
But after five years of getting the good word out and bringing the good people in, another opportunity presented itself and Coughlin is on to the next phase of her life. She started her new job Thursday in marketing and public relations for The CPI Group in Columbus, a staffing and human resources firm.
Start by recapping your duties for the CVC and the United Way.
My primary duties were volunteer management — recruiting volunteers, advocating volunteerism and placing volunteers. And for the United Way it was media relations, special events coordination, coordinating allocations and community outreach programs.
How did you go about recruiting volunteers?
When I started, the volunteer center was pretty much just an office and a notebook of ideas. So what I did was start with what I learned in college. I started from the ground, built a newsletter and started networking, using publicity — WCBI and The Dispatch, everything that I could get that was free publicity to get our name out there.
It got to the point after five years that people were calling us every day. I had no advertising budget, but people were calling us and it really just spread through word of mouth.
There”s so much support in this community. Anytime I needed a volunteer I would send out an e-mail and it would get forwarded all over the community. The cool thing is, in Columbus, it”s really not hard to get volunteers because people here want to volunteer.
What is it about Columbus, or is it the area in general?
According to research and studies, Mississippi is one of the most charitable and giving states. We”re giving in terms of time and money, which is ironic because we”re the poorest state.
All I know is that Columbus is ready to give and to help, especially in a time of disaster. Like when Katrina hit, people were just all over the place wanting to help and do anything they could. And it was amazing when we had all those fires. People just wanted to help.
How did the need for volunteers change as the economy dropped?
I saw more organizations needing volunteers to do work. Either they couldn”t pay someone to do it or had to lay someone off and they were relying on volunteers to fill those missions.
Were you able to provide for all the requests?
We were never able to fill all those needs for volunteers. There”s just an incessant number of opportunities.
Looking back, what are some of your biggest accomplishments with the CVC?
It would be that when it started it was just an office and a notebook and I took no money and no advertising and turned it into something that is considered a model volunteer center in the state.
The Mississippi Commission for Volunteer Services was trying to open volunteer centers around the state because, at the time, we only had around three. At the same time, the United Way surveyed their organizations and asked, other than money, what can we get you? And the answer was volunteers. So the United Way partnered with the MCVS, and they came to me and said you really are a model volunteer center.
Had you volunteered for United Way before going to work for them?
I really had no experience with volunteer work because through college I either worked part time or full time so there really wasn”t any time to volunteer. I had done research for the United Way in college and developed a mock Web site for one of my classes and I really liked the mission. It just kind of hit home for me. Plus, they”re internationally known.
What was it like seeing the good the volunteer work you organized has done in the community?
Working for a nonprofit in the beginning was kinda self-serving, because I wanted to go into PR, but once I got into it and actually met some of the people who I recruited volunteers to help; it made a world of difference.
For example, there was an elderly lady who needed work on her hot water heater. I recruited a man who was an HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) technician. We went to her house and fixed it, and she called back and said, ”You don”t know. I laid in the shower for 30 minutes because I have not had a hot shower in so long.” That just makes you feel good.
And wheelchair ramps that went up at people”s houses that someone donated their time and money to build.
Then there was a guy that was actually one of our Volunteers of the Year, and he was cutting an elderly lady”s yard. She was like 90-something. And whenever he would cut the yard, she would come outside with her broom. She didn”t have any family and that was probably the highlight of her day.
So knowing I indirectly, directly impacted someone”s life makes me feel good.
How hard was it to walk away from that feeling?
It was very hard and a bittersweet moment. But right now is the right time for me and my career change. And I can still volunteer for the United Way and be involved and active.
And I know there”s somebody out there, just like me, just getting out of college, who can fill my shoes and have the same experiences and blessings I did.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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