For Myrna Liebig, she grew up with the notion that volunteering was just something you did — in fact, they didn’t even call it volunteering.
As a teenager, she helped her dad — an American Legion baseball coach — with taking tickets, announing the game, keeping score or selling concessions.
“I don’t know if we called it volunteering then. It was just that a person filled in a job where it was needed,” Liebig said. “That’s just what it was throughout my younger life. Then we got to a point where, ‘Oh, this is volunteering. I can do this.’”
And she kept volunteering, through all parts of her life and even now, with the Ready to Serve Volunteer Program run through the North Platte Senior Center.
“Ever since I can remember, my mom has enjoyed volunteering,” said Liebig’s daughter, Audra West of South Dakota. “She just always wanted to be helping others.”
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A native of North Platte, Liebig moved to Lincoln for a while before coming back.
“Now that she’s back, it’s almost like she didn’t skip a beat,” West said. “She just looked for where help was needed and she was there.”
Through RSVP, Liebig is called when opportunities to volunteer come up, whether it’s a school field day or wrapping gifts at the Platte River Mall.
“There’s always a group that needs extra help,” Liebig said, “and so sometimes I did things that I knew about, and other times I did things that I knew nothing about. But it gives you the same feeling of helping.”
Through volunteering with different organizations, she’s valued being able to help people.
“When I was with the United Way, I learned so much about people and how some of them live in this town and their circumstances,” Liebig said. “Being able to to help people who have just had different circumstances than mine, that has always given me a good feeling.”
Even West can attest to that, noting that Liebig’s love for the community motivates her to give back to it.
“I’ve even asked her why she volunteers so much, and she just quickly answers, ‘Because I enjoy it; I like to help others when I can,’” West said.
Liebig also volunteers with the AARP Foundation Tax Preparation clinics, which were put on hold indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Liebig hopes that in sharing her story, someone will read it and think, “I could do that.”
“I think by being a volunteer, I have spoken more as an example. I will have people come up to me and ask me, ‘How did you get this job? How do you do this?’ And then I explain it to them,” Liebig said, adding that she also suggests volunteering to retired friends who are looking for something to do. “There’s just so many places, so many entities, that can use help.”
Liebig enjoys sports, so she also takes tickets at the Mid-Plains Community College volleyball matches and basketball games, as well as for high school tournaments that were at MPCC.
Most volunteer activities have been put on hold due to the pandemic. In fact, one of Liebig’s favorites — returning to help out at the American Legion baseball games — is currently on hold, too.
“I was looking forward to the Legion baseball this summer. Through RSVP, I had taken tickets and helped with the Legion baseball,” Liebig said, “It was kind of going the full realm, coming back to where I started.”
She’s cautiously optimistic, though, that perhaps there will be some games, at least later in the summer.
“Whatever happens, I’ll know that get a call, and I’ll get back at volunteering.”