Jessica Kelly Proves There's No Shortage of Volunteer Opportunities in Renton

How many of us spent time as a child fishing with a parent or grandparent?   Probably most of us did.  There are an estimated 40 million anglers in this country, and yet, it’s a sport reserved largely for the able-bodied. 

Jessica Kelly knows this.  She’s been volunteering with C.A.S.T. for Kids Foundation here in Renton since its inception.  C.A.S.T. for Kids provides disabled and disadvantaged children the opportunity to experience fishing — not just from the dock — but on the water.  The agency stages events all over the country, employing hundreds of volunteers who donate their time (and boats) to take children out on the water. 

“Jessica started helping with events when she was 10 or 11 years old,” says Jim Owens, founder and Executive Director. 

“Now she is a wife and mother and continues to volunteer," he said. "What a great example of growing up in service.”

Owens is right about that. 

Kelly was born in Colorado, but grew up in Renton.  Her father loved to fish with his daughter by his side.  Eventually, she helped start a kid’s fishing club, staging casting competitions and other events for children in the area. 

“It’s how I really got started volunteering,” Kelly says.

In high school, she joined Rainbow for Girls, an off-shoot of the Masonic organization, raising money and doing community service projects.  At Western Washington University in Bellingham, she joined Circle K International, the college-version of Kiwanis Club.

“Our club was extremely active,” Kelly reports. “We organized service projects almost every weekend.”

Kelly graduated in 2003 with a degree in History and went to work for MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions.  When she got married, she and her husband decided they wanted to do something together, and so volunteered to be merit badge counselors for a local Boy Scout troop, eventually joining the Troop Committee, even though they weren’t yet parents.  

“I know we were only 25 when we started volunteering with them,” she smiles, “but we thought we had a lot to offer.”

In 2009, she decided to leave her job and become a mom.  Feeling like she had too much time on her hands, she began looking for another volunteer opportunity.

“It was more difficult to find a volunteer position just for me,” she tells me.  “I’d always volunteered before as part of a group.”

Eventually, she found the Renton History Museum where she has been able to combine her love for history with her love of volunteering.  Working for the Collections Department, her first project was to take boxes of unbound newspapers from as early as the year 1900, read them word-for-word, and then create an excel file with names and dates that appeared in print.

“That way,” she says, “if someone is looking for someone, they can go to the excel file and not be forced to read through all the newspapers the way I did.”

It took her a year and a half to complete the project.  Today, Kelly is cataloguing old posters — theater, political, Boeing, even air-raid posters.  She enters the basic information from the poster into a database, takes a picture of the poster and then uploads it.

“Jessica is so valuable,” reports Sarah Samson, Collection Manager, “because she is always eager to learn new skills and is one of the most technologically capable volunteers we have.”

Liz Stewart, Executive Director adds, “The museum’s collection of historic documents, objects, and photos is critical to our mission of preservation and education.  We’re really excited when we get skilled volunteers who can help make more things available for researchers and visitors.”

Kelly devotes only two hours a week these days to the museum, but still volunteers at C.A.S.T. for Kids.  In addition to helping register kids at the annual fishing event at Gene Coulon Park, Kelly also volunteers in the office doing data entry, addressing envelopes, taking inventory of the fishing supplies, proofreading and conducting follow-up surveys.

“I pretty much do whatever Ashley needs me to do.”

There's no end in sight for Kelly’s interest in volunteerism.

“I just like the feeling that I’m giving back,” admits Kelly.  “It makes me feel good.”

Kelly has some advice to others who'd like to volunteer.

“Find something that you’re interested in, that moves you to make a difference,” she suggests.  “And then realize that you don’t have to get something in return.”