Dorothy Pacella, National Friends of Public Broadcasting Chair

I’m Dorothy Pacella, Chair of the National Friends of Public Broadcasting. It gives me great pleasure to celebrate public media volunteers throughout the country during National Volunteer Week and to recognize the volunteers at my local station, WNET in New York, NY and at the Friends of Thirteen, Inc. The National Friends of Public Broadcasting is an all- volunteer organization, established in 1967 to support volunteerism within public broadcasting through leadership, education, training, mentoring and recognition.

This week, Protect My Public Media joined National Friends of Public Broadcasting, America’s Public Television Stations (APTS), Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and PBS in recognizing the vital role volunteers have played throughout the history of public media and in thanking our current volunteers for their efforts on behalf of our stations. They play an important role in the success of every station they serve, and we applaud their dedication and greatly appreciate the time and talent they so generously give to public media stations across the country.

Who are public media volunteers?

Public media volunteers are the heartbeat of local stations. Thousands of volunteers put the “public” in public media by giving their time and talent to stations across the country.

WNET public media volunteers pose with a certificate from their station.

 
These dedicated individuals are our partners and our link to the community. They tell public media’s story on Capitol Hill and at State Legislatures. They are fundraisers and on-air hosts. Most importantly, they are our friends. They step up to every task, and no challenge is too great!

Public media volunteers join their stations in Washington to communicate the community impact of their stations to lawmakers.

Our volunteers are the people you meet at the grocery store, the bank, the library, places of worship and social engagements; they are educators and leaders in the community. Within minutes of meeting a public media volunteer you will realize how passionate they are about public broadcasting, usually beginning a conversation about a favorite program, an education initiative, station service or music. It’s this passion that keeps them coming back day after day, year after year, and stations create experiences that ignite this passion.

Why are public media volunteers important?

These dedicated individuals are our community ambassadors. They act as their stations’ megaphones by spreading the word about programs and events to community members and other organizations, thus introducing the station as a resource to the community. They foster conversations that allow us to explore stories, issues and concerns that are important to our communities and start finding solutions. Ambassadors serve as our footprint in the community by helping bring new voices into public media and finding novel ways to involve the public in the work we do.

Volunteers are critical to supporting membership drives and everyday office operations; staffing reception areas and greeting guests at special events.

WQPT ambassadors pack lunches for a station event.

They are board members, community advisory panel members, America’s Public Television Station’s Leadership Council members, Protect My Public Media advocates, Friends groups – like-minded people all working together to make certain that public media will stay strong and relevant for their children and grandchildren.

They make me and my industry proud, and we’re fortunate to have them as part of the public broadcasting family.

On behalf of National Friends of Public Broadcasting, I’d like to thank the thousands of dedicated public media volunteers for making your stations a better place and showing our nation the spirit and mission of the public media industry – to serve our communities.

If you love public media and are interested in volunteering, contact your local stations. You can find them here.