Erin Pedrini
Web Production Assistant
Calimer has been volunteering ever since she was a teenager for her father’s fire company, Germania Volunteer Fire Company. For the fire company, Calimer said that she started helping with the dinner that is held every spring and fall, where she prepared and served food. She still continues to volunteer for those events.
Calimer also became involved in the Atlantic County 4-H Association’s Youth Development Program. “I became a volunteer leader and had a club for girls and I taught them cooking, sewing, preserving foods. From 1979 to 1989, I was the first female president of Atlantic County 4-H Association and I held that position for 10 years. I became the secretary in 1990 and I still hold that position today,” she said.
Calimer is a member of St. John’s United Church of Christ in Egg Harbor and she volunteered as a financial secretary and sang in the choir. She also volunteered when her children were in school on the Parent and Teachers Association and she helped with fundraisers and she chaperoned. She volunteered when her children were involved in sports in the snack stand as well.
“I am able to still function and do my everyday duties. As long as I am able I do whatever I can to keep myself busy,” said Calimer.
The nomination for the Senior Service Award came from a friend of Calimer who helps her with her secretarial job at the 4-H and is also involved with volunteering for the fire company.
“I can’t believe that I got this honor since I know there are many other people that do just as much if not more. I am just thrilled and excited about a friend writing something up because I had no idea that she had did it. It was a surprise and I was quite surprised and I feel very honored to be recognized as a volunteer,” said Calimer.
As the award winner, Calimer was given $500 to donate to the organization of her choice. She said that she donated the money to the Atlantic County 4-H Association, so they can start a fund with the money to build a new kitchen in their facility.
“The association generates its own money. It owns 11 acres and a huge building that opened in the 1980s. It takes a lot of money to keep that building up. We have 25 members and we have the fair for the 4-H children to display their project work. We take care of all of the expenses of the grounds and the building and keep the buildings in repair,” said Calimer. “Since the building is older, we had to make it handicap accessible so we spent a lot of funds that we generated from our fundraising on that. We lost a kitchen from that and the children need to use the kitchen for their events. We did not replace the kitchen. So that is why I donated the money to the association.”
Calimer said that the best part of volunteering is the satisfaction of seeing the children being able to display a lot of their projects for the 4-H that they have worked on all year long. She said there are many clubs and they have many different projects.
“I think the biggest satisfaction is seeing the children when everything is judged at the fair and seeing the children look for their display and their project work and their ribbon that they get. It’s a reward that they all get for the work that they have done all year long and seeing the children happy is one of the things I enjoy the most,” said Calimer.
Calimer said that she thinks people should volunteer their time. “Time is precious but give up time to volunteer. All youth groups of any kind need volunteers. Everyone can’t be paid so whatever anyone can do to support others by just giving your time and helping out fundraising or something is helpful,” said Calimer.