| By
Kathleen Weir
Volunteers are needed to help assist the Skating
Association for the Blind and Handicapped (SABAH) on Mondays
and Wednesdays from 9 a.m. until noon during three skating sessions
held in Buffalo State College’s
Ice Arena.
Amherst Pepsi Center Rink Captain Lisa Reinhart said that SABAH
is always looking for people to help throughout Western New York
and that Buffalo State is just one of five places in need of volunteers.
The other days and locations for SABAH volunteers are:
• Fridays at the North Buffalo Community Rink
• Saturdays at the Hamburg Township Ice Arena
• Sundays at the Amherst Pepsi Center Skating Rink
• Wednesday nights at Niagara University’s Dwyer Arena
Those interested in volunteering need to fill out a form
and have to go through a basic training session at their volunteer
location on the first day. The training is just an overview of
how to assist the children with their skating. Any time people
can commit to their program to help the children learn how to
skate is appreciated.
Reinhart said: “A lot of times people think that if they
can only volunteer for an hour when the skating is open for three
hours then they can’t do it. But we will take any bracket
of time that they have. If a student has an hour available at
9 a.m. and has a class at 10 a.m. we could work around that sort
of thing.”
Right now the organization has nearly 500 volunteers in the area
and it is run by a board of directors and several office staff.
At 2 p.m. on April 10 SABAH is going to put on its 28th Annual
Ice Show in the HSBC Arena
in Buffalo. The organization could still use some volunteers to
serve as ushers, help in the locker rooms and help the skaters.
Food and beverages will be available for the volunteers on that
day. Anyone interested in helping can call (716) 675-7222. Donations
may also be made to help support SABAH.
To help support SABAH and to attend the event, tickets
can be purchased for $10 for 100 level seats and $5 for 200 level
seats at the HSBC Arena box office, tickets.com,
and participating Tops Markets
locations, or by calling 1(888)223-6000 to charge them.
SABAH isn’t the only volunteer opportunity on campus. Cathy
Duncan in the Career
Development Center in Grover Cleveland Hall says, “If
students have a general idea of what kind of volunteer work they
are interested in, they can visit the Orca
Web site to search volunteer opportunities as well.”
Kathleen Weir can be contacted at Weirka50@buffalostate.edu
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