Start a Father s Club to create a wider pool of volunteers for PTA and school activities. Hold a PTA Expo at the beginning of each school year to explain what PTA does and how parents and other volunteers can help at school and PTA events. Distribute a directory of volunteers to PTA committee chairs, room parents, and teachers. While school staff gets a helping hand, and school administrations see millions of dollars worth of work done for free, parents too benefit from volunteer programs. The opportunity for volunteering is what drew National PTA Vice President for Programs Judy Mountjoy into PTA work.
Volunteers gain as much as they give when they work in the schools.
Rewards for parents include a sense of belonging, getting to use a talent they have or want to develop, and helping their children perform better academically. In addition to helping their own children, volunteers often come to appreciate the help they re giving other people s children, Mountjoy said. A lot of people walk into volunteering wanting to help their own child, then they see they can help all of them. Pieces of the puzzle Successful volunteer programs have several dimensions. According to Mountjoy, one of the most important is to make parents feel welcome.