- Hi neighbors.

Welcome to Look for the Helpers, portraits, and Community Service.

I'm Cynthia Tyler.

In every community there are those who step up to lend a helping hand, giving their time and putting in the energy to make life better for those around them.

They don't do it for recognition, but because they care.

And it's what keeps our communities growing strong.

Tonight we sit down with two of our neighbors making a difference in the place we call home.

Terry Talt talks about supporting the children of the North country through his work with Casa of the Great Lakes Seaway Region.

And Norm Hart shares some wisdom and joy of volunteering in its many forms, including civic engagement and voter reform.

Please join me as we celebrate our local volunteers.

Welcome.

With me I have Terry Talbot of Casa, the of the Great Lakes Seaway Region.

So Casa is court appointed special advocate.

Thank you so much for being with us today, Terry.

How are you?

- I'm very well.

How are you?

- Very well, thank you.

Thank you - For having me.

- Of course.

So let's jump right into it.

You are a volunteer for casa.

Tell me a little bit about Casa.

- So Casa as you said, is a court appointed special advocate and what we do is we represent abused and neglected children in court.

So this is a child or children, it can be a whole family, it can be one child, or it can be the whole family of children that have been brought into family court for reasons of abuse or neglect.

They may be in in care, they might be in a foster home or with a, with a relative at the time.

And the job is to get to know the children or the child and do the kind of research necessary to understand the case to help those children achieve the best outcome possible.

Hmm.

So that could be anything from, you know, continuation foster care, return to a parent, or even adoption at the end of the process.

- Okay.

- And a typical case can take anywhere from, I'm gonna say one to three years.

- Wow.

- And we stay with the case.

The, the, when you sign onto a case, you agree to at least 18 months or you don't take it if you can't see through it to, to at least 18 months.

But ideally you stay with the case as long as it takes.

- Okay.

So that is a very strong commitment to that.

What inspired you to start volunteering for casa?

- So, I, I was raised in a home where my mother was a huge champion of the underdog and, and especially children.

And I've always been involved with community causes around youth and the most vulnerable.

So, you know, all kinds of things that that regular people do.

Right.

Food, cupboards and scouts and, and soccer and various community boards that help children.

So that's always been in my background.

And I saw an advertisement, actually it was on, actually it was on NPR down in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Now that was, oh my gosh, almost 40 years ago, 35 years ago.

And I had a little bit of time in my career, so I volunteered 'cause my children were very young and I decided to volunteer and become a casa there.

So I did that for a couple years, again in my spare time.

And then moved to Philadelphia and lived out the rest of my career in, in Philly and decided to retire.

And I retired about three years ago and decided a long time before that number one objective was to get back to being a casa.

And, and I've been a casa now here in, in the Seaway region for two and a half, almost three years.

Three years this December.

- Wonderful.

That is absolutely so fantastic.

Now I understand, we talked a little bit ago about the rest of your family and you know, you really love working with kids and all of that, but somebody very special helped inspire you as well.

Can you tell me a little bit about that?

- Sure.

Again, the thought was, I'd come back to this right at some point in time, but what really drove me to make this commitment, get re-certified, go through, go through all the training, was the loss of my daughter Lauren, very suddenly at the age of 17, about actually 20 years ago this fall, even at her young age, she was a high school senior at the time.

She had a tremendous amount of community involvement.

She loved to make movies, she was a videographer.

She really focused on human tragedies that affected children tornadoes in different parts of the country.

And she had done a, a wonderful, wonderful video around Hurricane Katrina and and nine and nine 11, especially because our, our, we lived in Bucks County at the time in, in Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia.

And there were members of our community that were in the World Trade Center at nine 11.

So she helped to bring the schools together in the school district with a, a wonderful video that she shot.

So, - So the apple didn't fall too far from the tree there.

She obviously got inspiration from you and in turn you got inspiration from her.

- Yes.

- What a wonderful way to honor her legacy.

That's so fantastic.

So what about the work that you do with casa?

What does that give you emotionally, internally, what does that do for you?

- It's the most rewarding work that I've ever done and I've done a lot over time, you know, but this is, this has been the most challenging but also the most rewarding.

It can be heartbreaking on any given day or, or several days a week, but at the end you get direct feedback that what you do has helped or is important and, and that's wonderful.

You get to see children that have come through so much, so many difficult things and see them come out on the other side in a, in a better situation with a better family situation and getting the kind of care that they need in the community and being able to help guide that is, has been tremendously rewarding.

And I, I would recommend it to anyone.

- Okay.

Now recommending it to anyone, what do, what do you have to do to become a volunteer for casa?

- So the, the process isn't, isn't very complicated to sign on.

You would reach out to your local office.

Ours is Casa of Great Lakes Seaway Region and it is an organization that needs volunteers every day, specifically here in Watertown, in in Jefferson County and in St.

Lawrence County where we've just opened up.

So the process is to reach out and fill out an application.

There's obviously background checks involved on reference checks and it's, it's a commitment of some time.

So you can take on one case if you'd like, or a full caseload, which is two or three cases depending on how much time you have.

It's a terrific job for people who work maybe part-time or have have afternoon hours, you know, available or weekends available.

You go through a training process that would last depending on the amount of time you can give it, you can, you can learn directly in person.

There are classes you can do some or all online.

New York State Casa has a wonderful organization that helps support us tremendously with online training.

And you get through a a, it's a, it's a fairly extensive certification process - Of course, - At the end of which, if you stick with it, you'll become certified and you actually are sworn in, in family court and by a judge and become a member of the system.

- Wow.

So some effort involved, but the payoff and the reward, I mean, absolutely phenomenal to serve the most vulnerable of us in society.

Yes.

And to, I can't imagine how exciting that must be to see the smile on their faces knowing that they're safe, that somebody cares.

What a wonderful way to serve the community.

Now from all of that, tell us a story from your work that has really touched you and stayed with you.

- Sure.

So I, I'm gonna go way back.

So there's, because I, you know, it's all confidential, right?

But I will tell you that way, way back in, in Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, I had a, a child that assigned to me a case.

He was 12 years old and he was at, it was a very, very sad situation.

He lived with his grandmother from a, a very broken family.

His, his mother had substance abuse issues and was not in his life.

And his father was not there.

And he had something happen to him at school that brought him into the healthcare system.

His grandmother did not trust the system, didn't like the system, but loved him.

So she made some mistakes along the way that caused him to get in into the family court system, caused her to get into the family court system.

And over the course of my working with this, this 12-year-old who was tremendously bright, great at school and but, but a little bit broken by the system.

And through that process of our working together and me working with his grandmother, we got all the way through to the other side.

They were reunited.

He got to go back home, which is where he should have been all along.

Which there's a lot of investigative work that you do involved in this.

A lot of legwork to kind of determine the facts involved And to work with the child to, you know, what is it that they want of course.

And is that the best for them too, right?

You have to look at both sides of it and how can I create the, the best outcome for them?

Well anyway, he is now, all these years later, what you got clear of the system, very successfully went on to finish school.

He is now a minister in South Carolina with a huge congregation that's filled with love and care in his community.

- Oh, wonderful.

What a fantastic outcome that has to just make your heart sparkle.

- It does.

- That's fantastic.

It really does.

That's absolutely marvelous.

So one last question before we finish up here.

What would you say to somebody to inspire them to volunteer?

- Oh, that's a great question.

So this isn't, you know, dropping off donations at at Goodwill or local food bank, which are wonderful things.

It's the passion to be involved and make a difference with the skills that you bring, right?

You don't need be a caseworker to do this.

You need to have a passion for helping those in need, helping children and persistence, right?

So you come to it, re retired teachers are wonderful at this.

You know, re retired people in the legal system are, are great in this.

And and anyone, anybody, you know, nurses, you know people, people who have current lives, current work have an opportunity to help.

And I would say that if you want to get directly involved, right, and not from a distance, this is a wonderful thing to do.

And the outcomes are phenomenal.

- Priceless.

Absolutely priceless.

Well thank you so much Terry for being with us today.

We very much appreciate it and we wish you all the continued success with your work.

Thank you so much.

- Thank you very much.

- I am here with a very, very dear friend of WPBS and I'm so happy that you're here.

Norm Hart.

Welcome.

It's so great to have you.

- It's a pleasure.

- So now you are literally WPBS family.

You've been volunteering for the station for over 40 years, is that correct?

I think so, yeah.

Just about that.

Something - About it, yeah.

- Wow.

So we're a great station, we know that.

But what about it made you wanna volunteer?

- Oh, the quality of the programming is so good.

It's just leaps ahead of anything you see on commercial television.

And then Leo Bacal, I don't think he's alive anymore, got on and, and was pitching to get money for the PBS network and we donated and then that just led to do you need help?

And bingo, we were here some 40 years ago.

We're - Still, that's it.

And now you are from Canada?

Yes.

You are from Sendo Lake, - Correct?

Yes.

Send Lake.

- So you are, you are absolute joy over the border to help out.

Wonderful friend across the border.

You're always there when we are doing auction donations and reaching out to communities in Canada.

You and your wife Nancy have been so amazing for all of that.

Now is there a special memory that you've got here at WPBS that's like from your volunteer service that just really sparks joy?

- It makes it worthwhile?

- Hmm.

- Yes.

Yes and no.

It's, it's kind of sad but it, it lends to the idea of how important this place is.

So we're doing the auction and the phones are ringing, the phones are ringing and the, I was on the last phone almost and it rang and the other gentleman whose name after a while name seemed to disappear.

We got a phone call, Mrs.

Mrs.

Smith, I'll tell that's not her real name.

I remember it.

And she didn't know who to phone her partner.

They were seniors probably in their eighties.

Her partner had just died in the hospital and they phoned her, oh, she did not know what to do.

I'm taking this, I'm expecting a donation or a bid.

I got his attention 'cause we're all kind of closing up.

I said, we got a real problem here.

So next thing you know he is on the computer up in Ottawa.

That's where it was taking place.

Finding I guess, counseling people at this time of night for whatever your problem might be.

And we found somebody, I don't know how we did.

Wow.

So I'm talking to the gentleman from PBS and talking to Mrs.

King and we, this is the telephone number.

You phone them when you make contact with them.

Call us back, we'll wait for that and then call them back and help.

They will help you.

So that's the way it worked - Out.

Now how wonderful is that?

Now you have a But then, - Yes, next year following, we're at the auction again, the phone rings.

I pick it up and it's Mrs.

Smith and I say, hi, it's Norm.

Oh well.

And she goes through the whole RI road, how it helped how PBS helped.

- And that is what, - What - We are here to do is to serve.

And that's, and so for your service now, I understand also that you were, you had been at the St.

Lawrence College.

- Yes, correct.

I taught there.

- Now you have done some amazing workshops with our staff about hypnotherapy and relaxation.

Does any of that factor into your service in the communities?

- Everybody is different in the classroom.

Everybody is different.

You don't quite see it so clearly.

But on one-to-one basis with hypnosis, you do.

And if you don't recognize that either in the classroom and you treat everybody the same, which you cannot do.

And if I treat you like everybody else, you know, you fit in and, and you don't fit in and it's not gonna work.

So you have to be totally aware of what the person is telling you, how they're thinking and so on and so forth.

And the same in in the classroom.

When you get a question, here's, we had a fellow one year, Josh, he always sought at the sat at the back on my left and before each class and I'd be doing a three hour gig, we're all set to go.

I step out in the corridor and I have one of these little inha aromatherapy inhalers and it's got lavender in it.

Oh, and lavender is a relaxant And, and it's known for.

And you teach people that.

Anyhow, you do a couple sniffs and you go back in and you calm down and then Josh puts his, yes, Josh, how may I help you this time, sir.

And he's trying to be polite.

He doesn't know quite how to say it, but he says, just before your teeth, what are you snuffing?

And I looked at him.

Oh yeah, no, it's not cocaine, Josh.

Oh my god, it's lavender.

But you can't, you can't really laugh at him.

But we did get some joy out of it.

- Okay.

- And from that actually you had, you never know the rapport you have with a class until something like this comes up.

- Right.

- And then you think, oh this is working quite well.

- No, - But then what they didn't expect is being an educator teacher.

Well Josh, this is a teachable moment.

Oh, here he goes again.

You know, we're gonna learn something that we don't need to know.

Well you do need to know, of course they were all in nursing, - But all of your teaching and all that, it seems rooted in service.

Yeah.

Was there a person in your life that really inspired you to a life of service?

- My wife for one.

'cause we have these skills and you may as well pass them on.

There's that about it.

Thinking back in time, I can only think of one high school teacher and that worked out okay.

But not so much service.

But when I hit university, the instructor prof in the Canadian government course that he was in the library, everything's over, he's marking the final essays.

And I walked by and I said, hello, we'll call him Dr.

Smith.

It's not his real name.

And Dr.

Smith looks, oh, and he says, where did you learn to write?

Like this English class thinks no, your, these were handwritten.

Well my curse of writing doesn't have an upstroke when you start, it just starts.

You know, he thought that was odd.

I said, I have no idea where that came from.

He said, well what are you doing next?

And I'm thinking, passing next year.

You know, it's not a high goal, but it's a goal.

He said, no, no, no.

What are you gonna do your master's in?

And I looked at him and I said, as in a degree, are you kidding?

He said, no, no.

This is Master's quality writing.

Oh, well thank you.

Well I did do a master's.

- So that person all took, was their notice of your work and that inspired you to go on to this?

- Yeah, at the end of my first year, I think maybe I'm gonna pass.

- That's all we can ever hope for.

It's all we can hope.

Yeah.

But in, so, but that was a, a part of that education was about local government and all of that.

And I understand that you are a member of Fair Vote Canada.

- Yes.

- Now that is something that you're volunteering for.

And tell us about that.

What is that about?

- We're an organization in Canada wide and our idea to change the voting system of the country, nothing small about it.

And we wanna change it to a proportional system so that if your party, if the, this party A gets 40% of the votes across Canada, you get 40% of the votes in the House of Commons, which is where the votes count.

It doesn't matter how many members of parliament you elect.

So if you only elect five, you divide five into 40.

And if you are the member of Parliament, you get eight votes.

- Sure.

Now how long have you been with Farrah Vote Canada?

- Oh, I have to do the math.

- So this is the long term projects.

15.

15.

- Yes.

20.

Oh yeah, we're - Well is that any, anything in government?

It just takes time takes to change those sorts of things.

In the Fair Vote Canada work that you are doing, do you what?

What does that involve?

Do you go out and canvas?

Do you make phone calls?

How do you advocate change?

- Because I am a distinguished Toastmaster and I taught public speaking at St.

Lawrence College and Communications.

I go out and I volunteer my time to tell people, service clubs, whoever would listen to me about the voting system in Canada, which we know does not work.

And I said, ah, we have a solution.

And it's a simple one.

And they say, why don't we do it?

Well that's where we have to go and knock on our MP's doors.

And some doors are more open than others.

- Now with this fantastic Toastmaster skillset that you have, go into head and tell us how would you inspire somebody?

What would you say to them to inspire them to volunteer?

- What do you like in life?

What kind of things do you like doing?

What type of skills do you have?

What are your hobbies?

What are your interests?

And you find those things out and then well, you know, there are other things that you can do with your skillset that will help you help other people with what you want to get done in life.

So it's a combination of finding out what you like to do with a hypnosis client, what you like to do, what you want to do, and so on and so forth.

And then if it's joining Fair Vote Canada and you're not too happy with the way it's going right now, or the people you know, there's a way we could change that and you could do it.

And all you have to do is tell one other person and they will tell one other person.

And as Margaret, I think it was Margaret Mead said, you get an interested group of people, they'll change it - And you can change the world.

- You can change the world.

- That's right.

Wow.

Wonderful.

Well Norm, thank you so, so much for being with us here today.

- It's my pleasure.

Thank - You so much for being with the PBS family for so long.

You are a pillar of our family and we were so happy to have you on board and we are so excited to be keeping on working with you.

- My pleasure.

Thank you for inviting.

Bye-bye.

- Thanks for joining us today.

It's a reminder that bears repeating.

No one achieves anything alone.

The world needs a helping hand.

The world needs you go out and make a difference.