In honor of National Volunteer Week, the organizers of the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program want to draw attention to the 762 men and women who give their time — 114,356 hours worth a year — to help the community. And that's only the volunteers with this program, said Norma Koenig, project director.

There are armies of volunteers who help in hospitals, nursing homes or at preschools every day, she said. Senior-citizen volunteers provide the gray-hair wisdom to children who otherwise might not have a kupuna in their lives, Koenig said. These same people use their life experience as a calming influence in stressful times at hospitals and in nursing homes, she said.

"Life without volunteers is like a forest without birds," Koenig said. "The world is silent without them. Our kupuna provide sunshine for our children. Volunteers help people from the time they're little to the time they die.

"Volunteers do it all."

Take Margaret Pekelo, a Waimanalo resident who organizes senior-citizen patrols on Waimanalo Beach Park twice a week. She and her band of 14 senior citizens make the park safe from theft.

"I do it because I want to take care of our community," Pekelo said. "You need to stay involved with your community as a whole."

Ron Higa, a volunteer at Avalon Care Center in Kalihi for the past 34 years, comes every Tuesday and Friday to play games with the senior citizens.

Eric Chang, a retired state Department of Education curriculum administrator, has made volunteering at Pauoa Elementary School a three-times-a-week job. He tutors second-graders in reading.

"I wanted to put meaning back in my life," said Chang, who lives in Salt Lake. "It's such a great experience. My reward is when I see the spark of knowledge in their eyes."

The Retired and Senior Volunteer Program places the volunteers in 80 different locations around O'ahu, Koenig said. Volunteers either go to the school and tutor students, work in the library or help teachers in the classroom, and others work in agencies like the Blood Bank, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Hawai'i Plantation Village, Leahi Hospital and the Lyon Arboretum.

The agency was formed after Congress passed Title IV of the Older Americans Act in 1965. It falls under the umbrella of the Helping Hands Hawai'i, an Aloha United Way agency, Koenig said. When volunteers sign up, they are screened before being referred.

On Thursday Chang helped two girls understand the parts of a story and the key vocabulary words. He walked them through the main characters and the meaning of the story. The students eagerly answered his questions.

"Sometimes you don't get a reward quickly, but then all of a sudden you realize that you made some impression on the student," he said. "That's the best part."