The Town of Middletown is a great place to live, work and play. To give back, check out the following piece about different volunteer opportunities across the community.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Matt Sheley at (401) 712-2221 or msheley@middletownri.com
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES GALORE
MIDDLETOWN, R.I. (JULY 21, 2021) – Looking for a way to give back to the community where you live or work?
The Town of Middletown has a webpage outlining a variety of volunteer opportunities available throughout the year.
Accessed at https://mdl.town/Volunteer, the page offers chances through the Town itself, the Aquidneck Island Emergency Volunteer Alliance and VolunteerMatch.org online.
“Without our volunteers, there’s no way we’d ever accomplish so much,” Town Administrator Shawn J. Brown said. “They help with every facet of the Town from our beaches to what roads need to be done to litter patrols. Literally, they’re everywhere, working to help family friendly Middletown a great place to live, work and play.”
A quick review of the Town’s volunteer boards and committees shows there are more than two dozen volunteer groups.
They’re involved with everything from finding ways to help make Middletown more affordable for families to the quality of the beaches, improving the quality of life for local youth and everything in between. There are also long-standing boards and committees like the Zoning Board of Review and Planning Board, which can effect change with every decision those groups make.
Separate from the Town, the Aquidneck Island Emergency Volunteer Alliance – known as AIEVA for short -- as well as VolunteerMatch.org offer chances to give back.
AIEVA is a collection of mostly Middletown, Newport and Portsmouth residents established to provide a pool of volunteers to provide assistance during emergencies and natural disasters. This could include everything from handing out food or staffing the emergency shelter at Gaudet Middle School on the Turner Road side of the building.
Earlier this year, AIEVA was critical in staffing the COVID-19 vaccination center at the Newport campus of the Community College of Rhode Island. AIEVA volunteers helped reach out to the community’s 65 plus year old community to see if anyone needed assistance and had special needs.
As for VolunteerMatch.org, that webpage lists chances to help not only in Middletown, but across the region.
Locally, the nonprofit environmental group Clean Ocean Access has information about its “After5” cleanups at Second Beach. As part of those weekly cleanups, participants work every Wednesday night from 6-7 to cleanup and chart debris collected at the Sachuest Point Road beach. Pre-registration is requested, but not required.
“Honestly, the work our volunteers do gets overlooked far too often,” Brown said. “I know the Town Council and the Town certainly appreciate everything they do for Middletown. It’s just one of the reasons this is such a wonderful place to be.”
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