The old song says it all: Love…it makes the world go round. And perhaps no type of individual more clearly shows what love is about than the volunteer.

Volunteers give of their time, their dedication and their hearts. Most often, it’s an effort made on behalf of those they don’t even know. And according to the Volunteer Center of North Texas, Dallas residents – and others in the Metroplex – know a thing or two about giving, generating in excess of $55 million of donated time and materials for local nonprofit groups.

But there’s always room for others, says Betty Houser, director of marketing at the Volunteer Center.

“Right now, the need for volunteers and the kinds of volunteer positions available have never been greater,” she says. “The Volunteer Center can help put people in meaningful volunteer positions that meet their needs while making our community a better place to live.”

With over 8,000 volunteer opportunities offered by the Volunteer Center, finding a way to serve the Dallas community is easy. Any skills are valuable, as volunteers can do anything from mentoring to dog walking, counseling to accounting.

“We’ve found some neighbors who go above and beyond the call to give. These folks recently won recognition from the Volunteer Center for their public service.

Preston Hollow residents Phyllis Steinhart and Frances Steinberg, both members of the National Council for Jewish Women (NCJW) are walking, breathing lessons in commitment.

Thirteen years ago, when NCJW member Wende Yellin, then an employee at Parkland Hospital, came up with the idea to use volunteers for a program aimed at testing the hearing capacity of newborns, Steinhart was among the first volunteers, and Steinberg came on board about eight months later.

The Parkland Hearing Screening program endures to this day, with many of its volunteers coming from the Dallas chapter of NCJW. Steinhart and Steinberg are two of about 10 women who come to the hospital between two and four hours a week, assisting audiologists with screening newborns’ hearing.

According to Lisa Little, director of volunteer and guest services at Parkland, the hospital is the only one in Texas using volunteers to help with this procedure. And it’s critical work, she says, because the earlier hearing loss is detected, the sooner parents and doctors can begin work with the child’s speech development.

The two women are partners, working the Monday shift together. “I like the satisfaction of feeling I’m making a difference in these children’s lives,” Steinberg says.

The program started out testing only at-risk babies in the Special Care nursery. In fall of 1999, however, Parkland began screening all babies before discharging them from the hospital. When the expanded program began, volunteers were recruited from other groups. However, of the 30 volunteers trained over a six-month period, one stayed, the others unable to make the time commitment. But the women from NCJW remained, and in fact have increased their involvement. They assist with 75 percent of the supply costs for hearing screening in the Special Care Nursery.

“I really do not know such a steadfast group,” Little says. “Some are volunteers year after year and are determined to make this work. They’re saints on earth.”

For the NCJW women, sticking with the program is a simple choice.

“Before, if we didn’t do it, the babies didn’t get tested. When I leave, I really feel good about doing it, feel like I made a difference for those babies. And Parkland’s so strapped, it really helps them out,” Steinhart says.

She says her volunteer work at Parkland is simply her Monday job. And though Steinberg admits she thought of retiring earlier this year, when Steinhart asked her what she’d do with the extra time, she reconsidered.

In addition to her work with Parkland, Steinberg also volunteers with Meals-on-Wheels, delivering meals once every four weeks for the past 20 years.

“I told my grandson that it takes so little to give up an hour and a half every four weeks, and it gives so much,” she says.

Both women count the hearing program as among their favorite volunteer work.

“If the Council ever dropped the project from their list, I’d still do it. I really love it,” Steinhart says. “It’s a good project, it’s hands-on, and I’ve learned something. It’s really great because you get to learn something and give back.

“It’s important to help other people. If you’re able to give back to the community, it’s your obligation to do it,” she says.

An organization run almost entirely by volunteers sounds almost implausible. But under the guidance of Judy Rorrie, executing director since 1995, the North Dallas Shared Ministries (NDSM) is going strong in its mission to help thousands in the area.

The organization runs an emergency aid center, assisting the disadvantaged with items such as food, rent, utility assistance, prescriptions and eyeglasses. It also offers employment and other types of counseling, English and other adult literacy classes, transportation assistance, a Friday Food Basket program for the elderly, and a free medical clinic, which immunizations, well-baby checkups, a dermatologist, and, most recently, dental care.

And Rorrie, who works about 70 hours a week and is responsible for every facet of the ministry, has never taken a salary. She has volunteered with NDSM since it opened in 1983 as a cooperative effort of several North Dallas churches. She does “whatever needs to be done,” she says, from interviewing potential clients and reviewing applications, to fundraising and recruiting and training volunteers.

She’s helped out by more than 500 of them, who in turn provided aid for approximately 54,000 people last year through NDSM’s many programs.

In fact, everyone who works at NDSM, with the exception of one administrative assistant, is a volunteer.

“They do everything but clean the bathroom,” Rorrie laughs. “Everything that’s required to run a business, volunteers do.”

Rorrie, like most of the other volunteers, became involved with NDSM because her church, Northaven United Methodist Church, is one of its member congregations. Her husband and three daughters, now 33, 29 and 26, have all volunteered at NDSM as well.

“I love the hands-on work, working with clients, and I really enjoy working with the volunteers. They’re an exceptional group of people,” Rorrie says. “I love the challenge. We have very little bureaucracy, so we can use our common sense to get things done.”

For example, when Rorrie saw the need for a Clothes Closet and Thrift Store, she went about organizing them. When she decided the organization’s medical clinic should include chiropractic and well women’s clinics, she added them.

“There are multiple opportunities to do what volunteers find satisfying. It’s an exciting place, and we’re lucky enough to have the resources to help people with,” Rorrie says.

Rorrie says that although they work with the poor and see some disheartening situations, working at NDSM is ultimately rewarding.

“It’s a chance to give back, a chance to be stimulated. Every day, we see heartwarming and heartbreaking facets of human existence. The true gratitude from the clients is what is rewarding and memorable,” Rorrie says.

“It’s a place of minor miracles on a daily basis.”

No one could blame Melinda Shapiro if she never wanted to set foot in a hospital again. At the age of six, she was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Though her cancer was eventually cured, she was left legally blind and hearing impaired, among other challenges. During her illness, she was often a patient at Children’s Medical Center.

Now 23 years old, she has been heading to the same hospital at least once a week for a year and a half. Why? For her volunteer position at the information desk, where she greets patients and their families, directs people to appointments and delivers mail.

“I like working with the people, seeing the little kids, and working down here,” she says.

Shapiro lives in a group home, where she’s learning to become more independent through daily tasks such as cooking and cleaning. But she and her caregiver, Cherry Werner, decided she could do other things to help her on her road to increased self sufficiency, and they began volunteering at Children’s.

So far, Shapiro has given more than 130 hours of her time. She also was a recent volunteer at Temple Emanu-El, and that position has morphed into a part-time job: She acts as a greeter for several of the temple’s clubs and works with kids in the library.

Shapiro, a Hillcrest graduate, credits her mother as another inspiration for her volunteer work. Debbie Shapiro, who passed away two years ago of cancer, built the Children’s Cancer Fund to what it is today, says Werner.

Although Melinda has had several challenges to overcome, she has met all of them head-on. She was in the National Honor Society at Hillcrest and was even the school’s mascot.

Volunteering at the hospital has been another natural fit for Shapiro.

“She wanted to give something back because they helped her so much,” Werner says.