2023-04 From the President: Introducing the Silver Gopher Service Corps

UMRA members are great volunteers. We know from conversations and surveys that UMRA folks, as individuals, are volunteering in many places, often with the help of the University Retirees Volunteer Center (URVC). But, up to this point, we haven’t done a lot of service projects as an organization. I think we should.

I believe UMRA needs to develop a group service component. where members can volunteer as a visible group, serving good causes while enjoying the camaraderie of working together and making our name known. We could volunteer at specific events or at specific places on an ongoing basis. 

For some time, a group of us have been talking about this idea and how to make it work.  I’m excited to announce that we are now ready to launch the UMRA Silver Gopher Service Corps.

Opportunities to do good and have fun

The purpose of the corps is to give UMRA members opportunities to get together to do good and have fun. We will have t-shirts and maybe other ways to identify ourselves. Any UMRA member can join and participate as often as they want.

Give me credit (or blame!) for the name and championing the idea, but give Jerry Rinehart, Deanne Magnusson, and Will Craig major credit for figuring out how to implement the effort and for arranging our first team-oriented projects. 

I hope to see you soon, proudly wearing your Silver Gopher Service Corps t-shirt and making the organization proud!

—Ron Matross, UMRA president, [email protected]