Volunteer of the month

All the world's an environment, and Phyllis Stevens plays an active role

To see an extrovert in action, come to the Bay Chapter Office on a Thursday morning, when Phyllis Stevens volunteers as receptionist.

She's a believer in energy conservation, but whirlwind Phyllis doesn't stint on personal energy, whether she's in the office greeting and helping visitors, or at other times of week, when she may be greeting callers at an assisted-living center, or hiking a Bay Area trail, or attending a lecture on economics, or tap-dancing up a storm in a class or a performance.

To the folks at the Bay Chapter Office, Phyllis is more energizing than double-shot espresso. Chapter administrative assistant Joanne Drabek says, "Her upbeat and positive attitude provides a good jolt to start the day."

Besides answering the phone, greeting visitors, directing people to the appropriate sources, and handling assorted office responsibilities (all "very professionally", adds Drabek), Phyllis each week visits the "action alerts" board in the Chapter Office to write letters to public officials about environmental issues. Since becoming concerned that the letters left at the office might not be mailed swiftly enough, she personally has taken on the role of tending them, making sure that they are correctly addressed and promptly sent, and keeping track of the contacts.

Phyllis not only answers phone calls; she initiates them. At home and at the office, she telephones legislators to make sure they hear her voice about current matters. "She lets them know what she thinks," Drabek says.

In fact, she lets everyone know what she thinks. A lively conversationalist, she's interested in everything (people, popular culture, politics); she will express an opinion about everything - and she is unfailingly and warmly interested in other people's opinions as well - regardless of whether they agree with her.

What motivates her to contribute her Thursdays to the Club? Phyllis answers indirectly: "I am in such awe of the people who are committed to the planet. Where would we be if it weren't for the researchers and the environmental activists?" Prodded, she lets slip that she read in the Yodeler about the need for volunteers and figured that this was one way she could be part of the movement.

Born in St. Paul, she recalls that she and her sister and two brothers were bouncing on a bed when they heard radio news they didn't understand: the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. After the war, when Phyllis was 12, her father accepted a job as a government meat inspector in the Bay Area, and the family moved to the sand dunes of what is now Pacifica. The family slowly migrated north: to Daly City and then to San Francisco, where Phyllis attended Mission High. In the 1950s there weren't environmental clubs in high schools. Her extracurricular activities involved the performing arts - especially singing and acting - and roller-skating with her friends at Playland at the Beach. Following high school Phyllis attended business school and landed the role of Yum Yum in the Lamplighters' production of The Mikado.

At 19 she married, and spent her days working for Metropolitan Insurance and the Bank of America, and her evenings taking classes. For about nine years, she stayed home with her two daughters and son. When her marriage ended, she went back to work while raising her kids. Her business training served her in good stead during 30 years of government office jobs for the Army at the Presidio, for the Navy at Treasure Island, and for the Veterans Administration in San Francisco and Martinez. For a year she left the Bay Area, working for Social Security in Lakeport (near Clear Lake), but she didn't feel she belonged there and returned to the East Bay and a job at the Department of Agriculture in Albany.

Somehow Phyllis managed to squeeze in, amidst home and office chores, a return to theater. At Walnut Creek's California Theatre Arts Company she played the fairy godmother in a full-scale production of Cinderella, and also performed in the musical Nine. For another company she metamorphosed into Yenta in Fiddler on the Roof. She sang for seven years with a gospel choir, which, to her dismay, disbanded about a year and a half ago. "I'm keeping my eyes peeled," she says, for new acting and singing opportunities. For the past 20 years, she has been tap-dancing. Yes, she admits, she grew up with and loved every film Gene Kelly made.

In 1989, shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Phyllis traveled with a friend to Eastern Europe - to Hungary, Eastern Germany, and Czechoslovakia. In Czechoslovakia they could hear the sounds of war in Yugoslavia. She has also toured parts of Western Europe and Great Britain and has twice visited Ireland, maybe her favorite destination.

Bay Area sights delight her too. She likes walking and hiking in San Francisco, Mount Diablo's Mitchell Canyon, and Walnut Creek's Heather Farms, sometimes with Sierra Clubbers.

Though she has retired from the government, Phyllis still works part-time as a receptionist at a senior-care facility. She loves the staff and the residents - but says the work isn't quite as lively as her Thursdays at the Sierra Club. "That's so educational," she says, especially relishing all she learns about the environment. "And I meet such a variety of people - all walks of life, all ages."

And one recent Thursday she came into the office excited about another volunteer opportunity she'd just read about in the Yodeler to help Inner City Outings bring young people on mid-week day hikes. She got right on the phone to inquire about it. It's not set up yet, but you can be sure that Phyllis Stevens is going to zero in on new experiences with contagious passion and exuberance.

Karen Rosenbaum

 

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© 2008 San Francisco Sierra Club Yodeler