Volunteer & Give Back

Adults

Info for Adults looking for volunteer opportunities.

Adult Volunteers

Students

Info for students looking for volunteer opportunities.

Student Volunteers

Families

Get the whole family involved in giving back.

Family Volunteers

Food Drives

How to plan a food drive to support our Food Pantry.

Food Drive Info

Other Community Volunteer Resources

Adult Volunteers

Volunteer Opportunites

How Our Volunteers Help

For over 90 years the Council has been run by our family of volunteers. Our team of over 100 volunteers keep our services going – we couldn’t do it without them!

Volunteers work in many areas of the Council including:

Thrift Store
Food Pantry
Data Entry
Office Support
Special Events
English Language Learning
Tablets & Tutors
Child Assault Prevention Program

What is Expected of Our Volunteers

People count on us and our services.

Our volunteers typically work once a week for a 2-3 hour shift.
We ask you to take responsibility for your committment to the Council seriously. We know things come up and ask for a days notice if you are unable to attend.
All volunteers will be asked to sign a confidentiality form.
Volunteers that work in the Food Pantry, ELL and Tablets and Tutors programs will be asked to sign CORI form.
Treat co-workers, clients and the members of the public fairly and without discrimination.
Respect the mission and goals of the Council.

Getting Started

To join our team of volunteers, complete the Volunteer Interest Form.

Our Volunteer Coordinator via email regarding your application or to arrange an interview so we can find the best fit for you and the Council. Please be patient, we are a very busy office.

English Language Learning Tutor Program

Our ELL tutors do not need to know the language of their learner or have teaching experience. They just need to be flexible, welcoming, and open to other cultures!

Tutors receive free training and then are paired with a student to meet on their schedule for 60-90 minutes at a location that is convenient in Needham.

For more about the ELL program and how you can apply to be a tutor: English Language Learning

Student Volunteers

Volunteer Opportunites

What You Need to Know

The Needham Community Council embraces the idea of students experiencing the importance of giving back. They can also use this as an opportunity to complete their required community service volunteer hours. Lots of our students continue with us even after the requirement is completed because the enjoyment and sense of community they get out of our volunteer experience!

We will not respond to parent requests – drop-ins or phone calls.
We will respond to your online request to set up an interview, but please be patient.
All communications must be from the student directly.
We expect all volunteers to act in a professional, responsible manner.
Students must be willing to commit to a minimum of 2 hours a week for 4 months

High School Students

We offer volunteer opportunities to high school students. In addition to completing their school community service requirements, our young volunteers learn the value of being a part of a community of “People Helping People”

Requests from parents, family members, teachers will not be accepted. We feel strongly that part of the growth from a volunteer experience is a student taking on the responsibility in an independent and mature fashion.

We typically do not have students work in the Food Pantry due to confidentiality.

Preference is given to Needham residents.

More details about volunteering: High School Volunteer Info

Middle School Students

As we are reopening and adapting our programs after Covid, we are still limiting the number of volunteers in our building. For this reason, we are unable to offer opportunties for our younger students.

Student Kindness Project

The Student Kindness Project encourages our students to perform a simple act of kindness for a friend, neighbor or family member.

In order to receive community service credit students must complete a Kindness Log and write an impact Statement.

Program Details: Student Kindness Project Info (PDF)

Family Volunteers

Getting Your Family Involved

About Volunteering at the Council

We love to see families in Needham teaching the value of giving back to their community. Due to safety and privacy issues, we are unable to have young children volunteering in our building. We’ve collected an number of other ways to help families participate and learn the value of helping others. We look forward to having you and your family be a part of our community of “People Helping People”

Ride for Food

Join our single biggest fundraiser The Ride for Food. The Off-the-Beaten-Path virtual ride is perfect for families! Whichever activity you choose, we look forward to working with you as a team member to help raise awareness of food insecurity in Needham, beat hunger, and have fun!

Off-the-Beaten-Path Virtual Event
Would you like to participate but not sure what activity you or your family may want to do? Here are some fun ideas, not all need to be active! Work with one of ideas or make up your own. We encourage you to find something you love, pick a time frame and challenge yourself just a bit! The best part is….everyone in the family can participate!

Kick 25 goals into a soccer goal every day for a month
Family read-a-thon, read 25 books over the summer
Peloton or Spin Classes, do 25 spin classes in a month
Try 40 new recipes this summer
Have a family dance party after dinner every day for a week
Get your Hoop on…do 20 minutes of Hula Hooping every day for a month
Tye Dye Gang – get some friends and bike together in matching outfits
Pick up trash in the town common spaces every weekend

Visit the Our Ride for Food Team Page for more info, or to register or donate.

Cans for Calcium

The Cans for Calcium Program collects returnable bottles & cans and uses the proceeds to purchase all the milk for the Food Pantry. Since the pandemic started he’s collected over $25,000 in returnables! Run by our volunteer, Jeff Dinneen, join his team of young people and families who help organize can drives in their neighborhood and help sorting and collecting the cans at the Needham Transfer Station. Email the office@needhamcouncil.org if you are interested in joining the team.

Can’t get to the Needham RTS when they are open? Drop your collections 24/7 at Jeff’s home at 1625 Great Plain Ave (green barrels at the end of driveway).

Private Fundraisers

The youth of Needham have amazing ideas, talents and heart! Creating small private fundraisers that have big impact is a great way to give back and help kids enjoy building community. We thank all the kids and families that have joined our team of “People Helping People” with some of these ideas:

making jewelry to sell to friends
collecting golf balls to resell to local golfers
selling healthy food to commuters at the train station
collecting spare change coins
making tie dye masks to sell locally

Use one of these ideas or create your own to help your kids make a difference!

Common Sense Collections

Please check back soon for details on a new way to help our kids learn about the importance of saving and giving back their resources.

Food Drives

How to Plan a Food Drive

Limited Food Drive Options

While we are not accepting private food donations, we are opening up to dedicated Food Drives. If you or an organization would like to have a food drive, we will ask that the food be limited to the items we need most during that time. These items are typically items we find it hard to purchase affordably.

Items we are currently in need of:

Olive Oil	Flour & Sugar	Paper Towels
Spaghetti Sauce	Canned Corn	Laundry Detergent
Tomato Paste	Real Mayonnaise	Household Cleaning Products
Tuna	Breakfast Cereal

Food may be dropped off at the Council during our office hours. Larger food drives should contact the office at office@needhamcouncil.org

Current Hours

Office/Phones:
Monday - Thursday	8:30 am – 4:00 pm
Friday	8:30 am – 12:00 pm

Donation Site:
Monday	10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Tuesday & Thursday	10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Thrift Shop:
Monday	10:00 am – 3:00 pm
Tuesday & Thursday	10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Food Pantry:

Accepting new customers and current customers by reservation only. Please call 781-444-2415 for details.

Council offices and all programs are closed on most major holidays. We follow the Needham Public School weather closings.

Joyce McCafferty

Joyce cannot believe she has lived in Needham for 10 years. It still seems like yesterday when the McCafferty family moved into town. Despite not having friends nor family here, the family has forged strong bonds of friendship with neighbors within this welcoming community and are proud to call Needham home.

Armed with a degree in chemical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Joyce’s career began in pharmaceuticals. Stay at home parenting temporarily interrupted her career trajectory. However, this detour pales in comparison with her current pursuit of a new career in healthcare as an EMT and ski patroller.

Previously active in ParentTalk, Joyce is excited at the opportunity to serve the larger community of Needham.

Andrea Wasserman

Andrea B. Wasserman is an innovative leader, effective strategist, and philanthropy expert. She consistently inspires clients to exceed their fundraising goals by focusing on smart development strategies and unleashing the right talent.

As Founder and President of the boutique organizational development firm ABW Partners (formerly Social Profit Ventures), Andrea has partnered with nearly 50 clients on customized engagements around the design and execution of exceptional advancement and fundraising programs. Andrea also delivers an expansive array of fundraising coaching, proficiency building, and learning opportunities from the c-suite and board level to development departments and cross-organization teams.

Before launching her firm in 2012, Andrea was the catalyst behind fundraising at various high-performing local, national, and international nonprofits. Charged with the responsibility of driving comprehensive and sustainable financial resource development, Andrea assumed pivotal roles at UJA Federation of New York, Wall Street Division; United Jewish Communities (first as the Director of National Young Leadership Cabinet and then Director of National Women’s Constituency); Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School; and BBYO International.

In concert with dynamic colleagues and stakeholders at these and other organizations, Andrea has successfully built cultures, systems, teams, and strategies that have yielded tens of millions of philanthropic dollars to foster vibrant communities worldwide.

Passionate about her family, friends, and community, Andrea resides in Needham with her husband Adam, son Zachary, and labradoodle Tucker. The Wassermans are members of Temple Beth Shalom in Needham.

Mary Richman

Mary, her husband Jeff and three kids (Noa, Patrick and Evie) have lived in Needham since they moved here from DC in 2007.

Mary graduated from the University of Virginia where she studied Finance and Marketing. She now works as a part-time consultant, providing marketing and financial analysis services for a few local companies.

Mary became involved in the Needham Community through her work at Parent Talk, first as their Fundraising Chair and then as a Co-President for 2 years.

Prior to being on the Council Board, Mary was familiar with the Council through her volunteer work as PTC Co-President at the Mitchell School.

Diane Retzky

Diane has over 20 years of experience in human resources and is responsible for all aspects of HR at New England Development where she has worked since 2008. She spearheads the company’s recruitment and retention initiatives and works closely with New England Development’s family of companies, including MarketPlace Development, Nantucket Island Resorts, and Newburyport Development, on their human resources needs.

Diane received a B.S. degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and her M.B.A. from Babson College.

Diane is a member of Society for Human Resource Management and a member of CREW Boston, New England’s leading network of professional women working in commercial real estate. 2021 will mark her seventh year on the Council Board.

Alrie McNiff Daniels

Alrie has more than two decades of nonprofit experience. Currently the senior communications officer at Tufts Health Plan Foundation, she previously worked at FSG, a mission-driven consulting firm; the American Cancer Society; and as a freelance writer/communications consultant.

Alrie's community and volunteer service includes fundraising for established nonprofit organizations, board roles on neighborhood associations, pro bono support for emerging nonprofits and numerous roles at her children’s schools. Alrie has produced school talent shows, managed logistics for school publications, coordinated teacher/staff appreciation events, and served as a room parent, classroom volunteer, Cub Scout den parent and Girl Scout leader. She also sat on the Board of Directors of the Library Foundation of Needham.

A native New Yorker, Alrie lived in Washington, DC; Alameda, CA; Chapel Hill, NC; Natick, MA; and Falls Church, VA during her husband’s Coast Guard career. They moved to Needham in 2003.

Andrew McCollum

Andrew is a Partner and Managing Director at Greenwich Associates, the global research-based consultancy. Andrew oversees the firm’s global Investment Management practice and is responsible for managing relationships with leading asset managers and investment consultants.

With over 20 years of consulting to the asset management industry, Andrew has experience advising clients on a variety of distribution, marketing and product issues. He has recently led advisory engagements on global growth assessments, entering the institutional market, brand equity analyses, product positioning and messaging, thought leadership program design and execution, and private equity fundraising. He has also authored studies on opportunities and threats in the Outsourced CIO market, trends in the ETF marketplace and developments in the defined contribution market. In addition, Andrew oversees the Firm’s work with institutional investors in North America and the subscription-based information service, Greenwich ACCESS™ for Asset Managers. He frequently delivers keynote presentations at industry conferences and is quoted in mainstream and industry publications.

Before joining the Firm in 2009, Andrew was a Managing Director at Chatham Partners and was responsible for managing the company’s research and consulting relationships with asset managers and defined contribution record-keepers. Prior to that, he worked in the Financial Services and Corporate Strategy Practices at CEB (Corporate Executive Board) advising firms on strategy development, strategic planning, M&A, and competitive intelligence, among other topics.

Andrew received his BA in Political Science from Cornell University and his MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern University. Andrew lives in Needham, Massachusetts with his wife and two daughters.

Jonathan Kappel

Jonathan is the Executive Director of Principal Gifts for Clark University.

Previous to working at Clark, Jonathan worked as a fundraising professional at the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee and Clark University where he has returned after 10 years. Jonathan received the Senn-Greenberg award for excellence in staff leadership from the Anti-Defamation League.

Jonathan and his wife, Carol, co-created the Ultimate Pink Drink fundraiser benefiting breast cancer research. He is also a past board member of the Needham Educational Foundation (NEF).

Lynn-Gotwals

Lynn Gotwals has been a Needham resident for 23 years. She and her husband raised their two daughters here.

Lynn is a teacher at the Mitchell School in Needham. Previously, she worked in project management for several nonprofit and for-profit organizations.

Lynn's previous volunteer work includes serving on the boards of the Needham Education Foundation, Needham Steps Up and the Outreach Committee at the Congregational Church of Needham. She began working with the Community Council as a Team Captain for the Ride for Food, an annual ride to benefit food pantries in the area.

Lynn has a B.A. from Smith College and a M.Ed. from Lesley University.

Linda Farley

Linda grew up in Needham; in 2000, she and her husband, Brian returned to Needham.

Linda has been active in Needham organizations including Newcomers, Parent Talk, and Needham Pool & Racquet Club. She’s also been involved in various school and youth sports activities through her 3 children who graduated from Needham High School.

Linda has been an HR professional for 30+ years including roles in high tech, consulting and healthcare; in 2018 Linda joined Needham Bank to lead its HR and Learning and Development team.

Linda is currently a volunteer for the Community Council/Dressing Well Foundation Karma Project.

Diane DerMarderosian

Diane was born and raised in Needham.

Diane graduated from Amherst College and then attended the Mount Sinai School of Medicine where she was selected to be part of the Humanities and Medicine Program. She completed her residency training in pediatrics at Brown University where she is the Pediatric Director of the Hasbro Partial Hospital Program, an integrated, family-based day program for children with complex medical and psychological issues. She is also an Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Previously, Diane served as the Medical Director of the Hasbro Children’s Hospital Eating Disorders Program and worked for many years as a primary care pediatrician at a health center in Roxbury.

Diane serves on the Patient and Family Centered Care Steering Committee at Hasbro, the Medical Advisory Board for Reach Out and Read RI, and the Patient and Family Centered Care Advisory Council at BID-Needham.

Diane lives in Needham with her husband, Peter, and sons PJ and Armen.

Priscilla Dasse

Priscilla has donated her time by volunteering at the Needham Community Council thrift shop and food pantry since 2012.

Priscilla received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, R.N from Boston College, and her Masters in Public Health from Boston University.

Some accomplishments in Priscilla's career include working as: a U.S. Navy Lieutenant (1969-1972); a nurse epidemiologist at Boston City Hospital (1972-1974); an Associate Director at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston (1974-1991); a Trustee at Deaconess Glover Hospital ( 1991-1998), Senior Vice President at CRICO/Risk Management Foundation, Harvard Medical Institutions (1998-2001); Senior Faculty Investigator at the Institute of Health Policy, Partners and Massachusetts General Hospital (2002); Senior Vice President, Performance Improvement and Chief Quality Officer at Cambridge Health Alliance (2002-2012); and a consultant in patient safety at Partners Healthcare System (2012-2014).

2021 will mark Priscilla’s eighth year on the Board of the Needham Community Council.

Margie Margolis

Past-President

Margie and her husband Jerry have lived in Needham since 1971 where they raised their children and enjoy their 4 grandchildren.

Margie has been a Town Meeting Member since 1970, and also served for four years on the Needham Education Foundation. She served on the Future School Needs Committee for sixteen years.

Margie taught first grade for twenty-three years at Hillside School. There she helped coordinate teachers and students with collecting food and goods that were delivered to the Council Food Pantry on a monthly basis. “When I retired, I was eager to be a part of the Council Board to be a stronger force in the over-all operation and to serve in any way I was needed.”

2021 will mark Margie’s seventh year on the Needham Community Council Board. Until COVID-19 hit, she continued to help schedule food deliveries with the Needham schools, and helped with the “Back to School Project” which usually takes place in August at the Council.

John Frantz

Treasurer

Currently retired, John was previously employed by The Boston Consulting Group. There he provided consulting services to major corporations, held a senior internal financial management position, and led an Investment Committee with oversight responsibility for the firm’s U.S. retirement plans.

2021will mark John’s seventh year on the Needham Community Council Board. He also does work with the Carter Memorial United Methodists Church where he is the Chair of missions/outreach team. They pursue a range of initiatives to help a variety of local, national and internal services and charitable organizations, including the Needham Community Council. John is also a Chair of the endowment team, which oversees the church’s endowment funds.

When he is not working and volunteering John likes to run triathlons.

Kathleen Berner

Secretary

Kathleen is currently the Marketing Lead for Accenture in Boston & Hartford — a role she has held since May 2019.

Previously, Kathleen was the Senior Director of Services Marketing at Staples. She joined Staples in 2010 and held various leadership roles in marketing–driving stores, staples.com and salesforce performance. Prior to Staples, Kathleen started an in-house agency; managed customer service; and implemented an email program for the Upromise College Savings and Loyalty program. She also supported clients at Digitas in the online education, automotive and wireless industries.

Kathleen and her husband live in Needham with their three children. She has volunteered at The Council since 2016 as co-chair of the Annual Holiday Boutique.

In 2010, Kathleen managed fundraising for City of Hope’s Spirit of Life nominee. She currently serves on several committees for the Needham High School PTC and serves on the board of advisors at Research Institute for Learning & Development in Lexington.

Kathleen is a graduate of Tufts University and holds a master’s degree from the Boston College Carroll School of Management.

Lynn Alberding

Vice President

Lynn has donated her time by volunteering at the Needham Community Council as an ESL tutor since 2011. In 2012, she developed an assessment tool with which to gauge the needs of prospective ESL students. Using this tool, Lynn has met with hundreds of prospective ESL students and has worked to help make successful matches with volunteer tutors.

Since 2015, Lynn has worked as the Director of Development at Wondermore, a non-profit whose mission is to bring authors and illustrators into underserved Boston public schools for curriculum-aligned classroom visits.

Prior to joining Wondermore, Lynn was active in the PTC in the Needham public schools and with the Needham High School Athletic Boosters.

Lynn holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Wesleyan University, and M.S. in Accounting and MBA from Northeastern University. Lynn worked as an equity analyst from 1997-2004, when she and her husband and their three children moved to Zurich, Switzerland.

Lynn's experience as a foreigner, learning a new language and customs, made a strong impression on her and served as the catalyst for volunteering in the Council’s ESL program. 2021 will mark Lynn’s seventh year on the Board of the Needham Community Council.

Robert Dermody

President

Robert J. Dermody was born and raised in Needham, MA. After graduating from Needham High School, he attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Civil Engineering. Robert then pursued a Master of Architecture degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

Robert is very active in the Needham community as a Town Meeting Member, and with the Exchange Club. He also serves on the Design Review Board, and Community Preservation Committee.

Robert is a Professor of Architecture at Roger Williams University in Bristol Rhode Island, and is a licensed architect in Massachusetts. I

n his spare time, Bob is a volunteer docent with Boston By Foot, and a BayWatcher for the Coalition for Buzzards Bay. His grandmother, Frances K. Dermody, was the first Executive Director of the Needham Community Council, a position she held for 25 years.