UMRA member Scott Elton caught the volunteering bug back in 2008 when he joined a Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity crew through Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. “It doesn’t matter what your skills are. Habitat always finds something for volunteers to do,” Elton recalled. 

So, when UMRA announced that the University Retirees Volunteer Center was recruiting retirees to join the Silver Gopher Service Corps, Elton was among the first to volunteer to greet future Gophers participating in the Office of Admission’s Newly Admitted Students Welcome Day at the University. 

“I really enjoyed snapping photos of families alongside a snow-covered Goldy outside Coffman,” he said.

Elton also joined other Silver Gophers to work with admissions staff during last summer’s Campus Preview days and, most recently, to pack food for underserved youth through the Every Meal agency in Roseville. 

He likes the variety and flexibility that volunteering provides. This veteran of the University’s central, collegiate, and departmental administrations finds retirement suits him, too—especially, he says, “the ability to take a nap after lunch.”

—Peggy Mann Rinehart