Volunteering is nothing new to these people

When Bill Clinton was graduating from Yale Law School in 1973,Gladys Davis was already serving as a volunteer "foster grandparent,"hugging, cuddling, rocking, singing to, feeding kids at Cook CountyChildren's Hospital.

And as Clinton, now president, along with Gen. Colin Powell,three former presidents and a collection of other political andentertainment celebrities kicked off the "Presidents' Summit" onvolunteer service in Philadelphia on Monday, volunteer Jose Casanova,83, was already on duty as "Grandpa Jose" to the day care kids atChicago's St. Vincent de Paul Center.

We can always use more people like Davis and Casanova, ofcourse, but Clinton and Company are hardly inventing, or evenreinventing, volunteerism, which has been thriving around here for along time.Only a few years ago, remember, it was big-government Democratslike Clinton and their wise-guy media allies who were mocking formerPresident George Bush for his "thousand points of light" advocacy ofvolunteerism.Davis, a widow who will say of her age only that she hasn't beenaround "quite as long as Methuselah was" and who has two children,four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, is in her 25th yearas a volunteer at Cook County Children's Hospital.She puts in four hours a day working with sick newborn babies,doing "whatever makes them comfortable," and "I love it," Davis says."Some people want to put you in the rocking chair" at her age,says South Sider Davis, "but I love to help people" and doingvolunteer work "means you're willing to serve others instead oflooking always at the dollar bill."Davis, who knows the worth and the virtue of volunteerism, isenthusiastic about this new "call to action" for communityinvolvement being spearheaded by Powell to help rescue "at risk"children.She is concerned about parents who don't even show up to visittheir kids in the hospital and says, "We need to take a good hardlook at what is going on out on the streets" and what it is doing tokids.Casanova, a native of Puerto Rico, and his wife, Manuela,residents of Rogers Park, have two daughters, seven grandchildren andtwo great-grandchildren.He volunteered at the recently closed Augustana Center forfoster care for 14 years and now does his daily four-hour stint withday care kids at St. Vincent de Paul Center, where he "talks withthem, plays games" and teaches them "good manners" and "how to getalong with other kids."He is concerned, too, that some parents, some of them drugabusers, just "don't seem to care about their kids." Casanova lovesthem. He also cheerily admits he enjoys being called "Handsome" bythe female day care teachers."I hope I will be here another 15 years" to help kids "get abetter start" in life, Casanova said.Jean Mitchell, a resident of Hyde Park and a widow with onedaughter, one grandson and six great-grandchildren, has also been afoster grandparent for 15 years since retiring after working in thelaundry and housekeeping departments at University of Chicago andthen Rush-Presbyterian hospitals.She'll be 79 come August and she now works "mostly with thelittle ones" at Wyler Children's Hospital because she "can't catch upwith the bigger ones anymore" because of arthritis."(The kids are) glad we're here," she says of her volunteerwork, but it is also rewarding to her. "I'm used to getting up andgoing to work," she said, "This gives me something to do and thatmakes me feel better."Davis, Casanova and Mitchell are all award-winning veteransamong the 151 volunteers in the Foster Grandparents Program run byMayor Daley's Department on Aging.They are also among the tens of thousands of ordinary citizensin the Chicago area who are volunteers - tutors, counselors, coaches,care-givers, job trainers, etc. - in the hundreds of social serviceagencies, churches, schools, institutions, community groups, blockclubs and other organizations around here.Hardly a day goes by that I don't hear from or about one oranother of them. And it's nice to see those of our "leaders" at thePhiladelphia "Summit" catching up with, and on to, something that hasbeen so large in our lives for so long.