With roughly 150 nonprofits in Summit County, residents and visitors have plenty of opportunities to give back. And for many organizations, it seems to be fairly easy to find volunteers willing to surrender a few hours of their time.

Over at The Summit Foundation, events and marketing coordinator Jennifer Stein said she's almost always able to fulfill the organization's volunteer needs.

“This is an extremely generous community with their time,” added Lee Zimmerman, executive director of the foundation.

For many giving up their hours, it's event-specific: People tend to volunteer for things like the Great Rubber Duck Race — for which Stein said she has a solid base of annual participants — or the Parade of Homes because they like the activity. In the case of the parade, Stein said the majority of volunteers are second-home owners who don't even know what The Summit Foundation is.

“It's maybe less the organization and more the event,” Zimmerman said. He thinks getting repeat volunteers for repeat events is easier than something in its first year.

Rolando Cuadrado, president of the Rotary Club of Summit County, said his organization always sees lots of support from the community — from both Rotary members and outside volunteers. At the Rotary's popular Krystal 93 BBQ at the Summit, there are literally hundreds of shifts to be worked. And every year there are many repeat faces behind the booths, along with a few new ones, filling every slot.

“We're not doing a lot of arm twisting to do it,” Cuadrado said. “This is a very active community.”

Cuadrado said the organization more than welcomes help from organization outsiders, and has unofficially dubbed them “friends of the Rotary.” He thinks they feel connected with the group, even if they're unofficial members.

Community dinner organizer Deb Hage also has no trouble finding volunteers for the Tuesday night event. In fact, she generally has more people and organizations wanting to help out than she can accommodate.

“We are so grateful for the amazing and overwhelming support we get from Summit County residents,” Hage said. “I think the same people volunteer over and over again for many organizations because they love the company of other volunteers.”

The folks over at the High Country Conservation Center agree: They receive weekly emails from community members and visitors about opportunities, and have about 100 zero-waste volunteers trained and ready to go.

“It comes down to the wire sometimes, but we usually end up getting all the people that we need,” said Matt Wright, energy operations manager at the center.

The younger set

It's not just the older or established citizens willing to help out in the community.

Over at Vail Resorts, the employee base is “historically very transient,” said Nicole DeFord of Vail Resorts Echo, the company's charitable arm. Workers can get involved by volunteering through Echo, or finding other opportunities in the community at one of its volunteer fairs. Those events connect Vail employees with local organizations like the Family & Intercultural Resource Center or Friends of the Dillon Ranger District. DeFord said about 120 employees from Breckenridge and Keystone — both new to town and the more established — showed up to a recent fair.

“What we actually found was we had a lot of first-year employees come out,” DeFord said. “It was really encouraging to see that.”

For the Summit newbies, she thinks there's a need to meet more people and feel at home in the community. It could also be a matter of wanting to know their new employer is “doing the right thing.”

Whenever she posts an event in need of good Samaritans, she gets “an immediate swell” of responses.

A long-term, but fulfilling undertaking

Stein thinks part of the ease of finding participants at The Summit Foundation is that many of the commitments are short-term.

“With our volunteers, you can volunteer for two hours at a time and still be giving to the community,” she said.

More longer-term commitments can be a little tougher. Over at Mountain Mentors, program supervisor Sarah Provino said they “definitely don't have too many.”

They currently have 60 active volunteer mentors and 13 in the process of getting there. But, there are 65 youth on the waiting list, “and the number continues to increase ... we receive youth referrals continually.”

The program asks for a year-long commitment of eight hours a month.

“We average 75 volunteer inquiries each year and about 53 percent follow through to become mentors,” Provino said. “Most of the inquires that don't follow through are seasonal workers that cannot make the year commitment.”

But, even though the group asks for a longer commitment than most, Provino insists “it is a more meaningful volunteer experience.”

Laura Eilers, a mentor for a year-and-a-half, agrees. The time commitment doesn't bother her because it's a very fulfilling part of her life; She said her mentee has provided her with a tremendous amount of personal growth.

“She's given me a lot ... it's been a wonderful experience,” Eilers said. “I thought I was only going to be there for six months, but a year-and-a-half later, I don't think I'm going to leave.”