Why the spirit of volunteering is a defining part of America's identity

[0:00] Before the United States was founded, the spirit of volunteering was already taking hold in the [0:04] colonies. Today, Americans give more of their time than citizens of any other country. During this [0:10] National Volunteer Month, our Judy Woodruff set out to explore how this tradition started [0:14] and why it remains such a defining part of the nation's identity. It's part of her series, [0:19] America at a Crossroads. The Patagonia All-Volunteer Fire Department has been a fixture [0:26] of this small Arizona border town for 102 years. Its firefighters cover 333 miles of surrounding [0:36] land, fighting every fire that comes their way, while also providing vital emergency medical [0:43] services to the largely rural mining and ranching community. [0:47] I think you find a lot of volunteers just, they look and they say, someone ought to do that, [0:53] and then they say, well, I'm someone, I'm going to do it. [0:55] Zay Hartigan is the fire chief here, overseeing 35 other volunteers who are following what [1:06] it turns out is a long American tradition. In 1736, founding father Benjamin Franklin established [1:14] the first formally organized Volunteer Fire Brigade in the colonies. The Union Fire Company [1:21] in Philadelphia had 26 members and would become a model for how fires in the new nation would [1:28] be fought. Today, at least 65 percent of firefighters in the United States are still volunteers. [1:35] Elizabeth Clemons of the University of Chicago studies the roots of volunteerism and the way [1:44] volunteer groups organized. We spoke at another hub for volunteers in the warehouse of the Community [1:51] Food Bank in Tucson. [1:53] When we think about volunteerism, we think about well-meaning individuals who give freely of their [2:00] time and money. And that's absolutely important. But what it misses is the extent to which the sort of governance [2:11] of American society was done by these groups. These groups become powerful and critical. [2:20] What was it about the founding of the country that left it important for American citizens to come up [2:28] with some of these structures that would get the country up and running? [2:33] Well, there wasn't much there, right? There wasn't much government. And to have a revolution to establish [2:44] a government is done by committees, some of which look very voluntary. So this idea that you can do public action, [2:56] whether it's responding to a natural disaster or supporting an ally in war, that you don't have to [3:04] wait for government to do it. [3:05] We could not do what we do without our volunteers. [3:09] Natalie J. Rowe is the CEO of the Tucson Community Food Bank, which on the day we visited served [3:16] 1,621 people with emergency food boxes. [3:20] What would it mean if these individuals weren't giving their tonic to this place? [3:28] A lot more people would be hungry. Eighty percent of everything that comes into a food bank comes [3:34] from private sources. And that's private donations. That's food from manufacturers, retailers. [3:40] But that's also all the labor that our volunteers give us on an everyday basis. [3:46] It's an idea that Clemens says differs from the European countries our founders left behind. [3:52] In American political development, there is a suspicion, I think, of government doing too much. [4:00] And so we have been more reliant on ways of providing public goods that don't look like government, [4:10] even if there's a fair amount of government hidden in them. [4:14] I just like helping people. [4:16] Everyone's not always going to be as fortunate as others. [4:18] So being able to come out here for a few hours a day and kind of just help other people out [4:22] just brings me a little glow in life, a little light. [4:25] We're all part of a community. We should be helping each other out and do what we can to help our neighbors. [4:30] I think it's just a national trait that we do this. It's unselfish. [4:36] All told, last year, volunteers here donated more than 100,000 hours of their time. [4:44] That's equal to the work of nearly 50 full-time paid employees. [4:49] What great volunteer organizations do is remind you that you can make a difference, and you do matter, and we need you. [4:56] Brothers Tim and Mark Shriver have both harnessed the power of volunteers in their work at international organizations like the Special Olympics and Save the Children. [5:08] People want to get involved. I mean, human beings are social animals, right? We want to be together. We want to do something that's good for the community, good for your neighborhood. [5:19] They say they learned about the value and power of service from their parents, Sergeant and Eunice Kennedy Shriver. [5:27] Sergeant Shriver founded the Peace Corps and then pivoted to fight President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, creating programs like Head Start and Vista. [5:37] America needs Vista volunteers. [5:39] Or volunteers in service to America. [5:42] He wrote about it all in a new posthumously published memoir, We Called It A War. [5:48] Daddy was a trained lawyer, and he was a political realist, and he was very tough-minded. [5:53] But he also paid a lot of attention to our mom. [5:56] And she believed as much in the goodness of volunteers. [6:02] She, while he was building Head Start, she was building the Special Olympics movement. [6:06] So our mom was always telling him, those scholars you like, Sarge, from Harvard and Yale, don't forget the teenagers. [6:13] Don't forget the moms. [6:15] Did you hear these conversations? [6:16] I heard that conversation. [6:18] He didn't want a Democratic war on poverty. [6:20] He wanted an American commitment to ending poverty. [6:23] He knocked on as many doors of Republican members of Congress and the Senate as he did of Democrats. [6:28] Back in Patagonia, as in many other small and mid-sized communities across the country, volunteer fire crews save the local government money. [6:39] Nationwide, the time donated by volunteer firefighters adds up to almost $50 billion a year. [6:47] This is a big responsibility you're taking on. [6:50] It's dangerous. [6:51] And yet people still want to do it and not be paid for it. [6:54] I think there's a certain pride in just, you know, stepping up and filling a need and not putting a price on it. [7:01] It's priceless. [7:02] Volunteers in this department come to the job from all different backgrounds. [7:07] But for Dan Goff and Annette Walker, their reasons for volunteering are the same. [7:12] This town has been very gracious to us, very gracious. [7:19] How has this town been good to you? [7:21] My kids, my husband, he had an accident a couple years ago, totally lost everything. [7:29] And then this department gave them something to do, and then I joined in right after. [7:34] It was my way to give back to our town, who stood by us the entire time. [7:38] I'll be upfront with you, and I know there's a stigma to this. [7:41] I'm actually a heroin addict in recovery. [7:43] And being of service is sort of part of that recovery. [7:46] So it helps me with tackling my addictions and helping the community. [7:52] That's really powerful to hear. [7:54] I got in our Canada department and was able to help people who were in a situation like I was in the past. [7:59] So you're able to pay back. [8:01] Absolutely. [8:02] And it feels great. [8:03] And from one of Patagonia's longest-serving firefighters, Richard Connelly... [8:08] I think that's part of the United States is volunteering and helping others. [8:12] And to keep that tradition going and make it even stronger, the more we can do, the better. [8:19] For the PBS NewsHour, I'm Judy Woodruff in Patagonia, Arizona. [8:25] Support journalism you trust. [8:38] Support PBS News. [8:40] Donate now, or even better, start a monthly contribution today.