For the Edlunds, Volunteering Is A Family Affair

Volunteering comes to each of us in different ways.  Sometimes it’s passed down from one generation to the next.  Sometimes it’s a family affair.  For Marilyn Edlund, it’s the latter.

Marilyn learned the art of volunteering at an early age.  Her parents, Gerry and Carole, own Edlund and Associates Landscaping.  Gerry is a longtime Rotarian and past Rotary President.  When Marilyn was young, Renton Rotary often held CAPER (auction) meetings at the Edlund’s home and stored a multitude of auction items in their living room. 

“CAPER used to sell a lot of art on consignment and so our house would be filled with paintings,” says Edlund.

Although Edlund was pretty little at the time, she would help catalogue and put stickers on the auction items. 

Edlund’s dad also offered his landscaping services to Rotary and recruited his kids to help out.  One such project was to design and install the Chief Seattle Fountain in a small park next to the Renton History Museum.  Edlund says she was only about eight years old at the time.  She and her brother, August, helped pick through piles of bricks from the old brick plant to use in the park. 

“Once the park was done,” she says, “we helped paint the fountain.”

Edlund started working in her father’s business when she was just 10 years old, going into the office to help her mom.  Before long, she was in the backroom with strips of paper and tree stamps designing stuff. 

“I used to spend hours drawing tree lined streets with cars and pedestrians.”

No one was surprised when Edlund followed in her father’s landscaping footsteps.  Today, she helps run the business and can often be seen around town maintaining flower beds and planters outside of local businesses. 

Like many people, Edlund is blessed with multiple talents.  For instance, she was first introduced to computers back in 1987 when her dad bought a computerized drafting program.  Largely self-taught, she now manages the computer network necessary to stage the largest auction in town, Rotary CAPER.

“I started helping with the computers for CAPER around 2001," she said. "By 2006, I had taken that part of the event over.”

How big a job is this?  In a good year, CAPER will process between 500–700 items.  This means logging items in, organizing them for sale, creating descriptions and bid sheets with all critical information, providing information for the catalogue, taking dinner reservations for 400 people and then handling all cashier obligations at check-out.  It’s a big job.  Big enough that Edlund manages a whole group of volunteers, including the DECA students who not only input information into the computers, but act as runners the night of the event.

Edlund’s other passion is serving as the Chair of Rotary’s Youth Exchange Committee,  recruiting kids who want to study abroad and then finding host families for the students coming to Renton. 

“I serve on the district committee, too,” says Edlund, “and help place kids who want to travel to Italy, Turkey and Switzerland.”

When I asked Edlund for the interview, I was aware of most of this.  But as it often happens, she surprised me.  It seems Edlund is quite a good Tole painter (as evidenced by the lovely wall hangings in her living room).  She belongs to, and volunteers for, the Northwest Toleliners, the local chapter of the Society of Decorative Painters, helping to organize their bi-annual conventions. 

“A lot of the members are older and don’t know how to use computers, so I help with that,” she says.

Edlund also sits on Renton’s Arts and Crafts Committee, part of the City’s Cultural Master Plan, and participated in their parks planning focus group.

“I figure you can’t complain that the City isn’t doing something if you don’t participate,” she said.

Edlund says she gets as much out of volunteering as she puts into it.

“I have always been shy,” she admits.  “But Rotary gives you a lot of support.  Now, I can not only get up in front of a crowd, I can even go out on sales calls.”

Over the years, the Edlunds have helped beautify Renton, both through their landscaping business and their volunteering. 

But as Edlund says, “You can’t expect the community to provide you with a certain quality of life without contributing back to it.”

This is the lesson taught by Gerry and Carole Edlund, and lived every day by the entire family.