NEW ULM – Opal Dewanz has no idea how many years she’s been volunteering in the New Ulm area. She started at church with the clothing depot and helping for funerals and has been enjoying it ever since.

“Everything amounts to helping people,” said Dewanz.

Dewanz grew up south of New Ulm and went to a one room schoolhouse by Searles where there were only five students in the whole school. Then she attended middle school at St. Paul’s Lutheran school and went to New Ulm public high school, graduating class of 1955.

Over the years Dewanz has volunteered with Meals on Wheels, the food shelf, at church with funerals and ushering, the Adopt A Family program through Brown County family services and setting up the Christmas Menzel Village for the Brown County Historical Society (BCHS) Museum.

Dewanz cannot help smiling when thinking abou the Menzel Village.

“There’s all these small buildings and figurines, an inch tall each, a couple hundred pieces at minimum–we set up different scenes like ice skating or a mountain scene,” said Dewanz.

Of all the places she volunteered, she likes Brown County Adopt a Family program best. The program helps give gifts to families for Christmas of books, clothing, or personal care items.

“We’ve got the most caring community you’d ever want to meet. I love doing it, it makes Christmas,” said Dewanz.

As a mother, housewife, farmer and former worker at the Minnesota Historical Society, Opal feels she might have missed her calling.

“If I had my choice I would have loved to have been a cop! I don’t know if it’s volunteering, but I was a member of the National Association of Triads (National Sheriffs’ Association) and I’m looking forward to going to more conferences for them,” said Opal.

She also volunteered at the Harken Store.

“It was so much fun, it was wonderful. I retired from the Historical Society, and then I missed it so much that I applied to work at I worked at Fort Ridgely. And I liked that. I couldn’t believe I was getting paid to talk at the interpretive center,” said Dewanz.

The most rewarding part of volunteering for Opal is just helping people.

“It makes you feel good. There’s a lot of different volunteering opportunities out there, most people could fit it into their schedule. You get back so much more than you give. It makes you feel so good. We owe rent on this earth; we’re not here to take up space. We’re put here for a reason and that’s to give back and help. And older people who volunteer live longer,” said Dewanz.

Her advice is to get out there and do something.

“There’s a whole world out there, lots of people to meet, and when you volunteer you meet people outside of your own circle. It’s fun, volunteering is fun,” said Dewanz.