Quick Take
Following Donald Trump’s election to a second term, Santa Cruz County nonprofits say they are seeing a surge in volunteer inquiries. Many are from people wanting to take a stand on issues, while others are simply looking to unplug from the political noise.
When Kay Tollini realized that Donald Trump was going to win the presidential election, her first reaction was disappointment. She recalls having a panic attack in the middle of the night over the election results. The next morning, however, she awoke determined to not let Trump’s reelection impact her life negatively.
The day after the vote, Tollini volunteered to lead a support group for transgender and nonbinary individuals at the The Diversity Center of Santa Cruz. While she had already come to terms with the election results, people participating in the support group hadn’t, Tollini said, and by the end of the session participants had a better outlook.
Six months ago, Tollini wouldn’t have ever thought she’d be this involved in local volunteer work. She said she turned her disappointment over the election into motivation to become vocal and active within her community.
“Sometimes it’s just even the little things we do. Maybe talking to one person, whether they’re a queer person or somebody trying to understand what transgender means,” said Tollini. People think they have to do big things to make change, but sometimes it’s the smaller acts that create a larger ripple effect, she said.
Other residents in Santa Cruz County are following suit, channeling their worries and disappointment over the Nov. 5 election into fuel to help those in need.
The Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County has seen an increase in volunteer inquiries, apart from the usual influx during the holiday season, said executive director Karen Delaney. A lot of that is due to the election results, she said.
Delaney added that she’s noticed more community members finding the urge to volunteer and do something good for the community. She’s seen two types of people post-election who want to help.
The first are those taking action because of their political beliefs and to support a cause they feel passionate about, Delaney said. The second type are those wanting to unplug from all the political noise and focus more on helping the community. From her perspective, whatever people are feeling in their hearts that motivates them to take the first step is great.
“Anytime there has been a stressor on the community, we just had people showing up at the door saying, ‘Hey, how can I help? What can I do?’” said Mary Casey, chief people and culture officer for Second Harvest Food Bank.
It’s been no different following the recent election — community members walked into the food bank the day after looking to do some good. Volunteers expressed their need to do something tangible, like packing bags or loading food into people’s cars, said Casey. “They couldn’t just keep listening to the news, so they decided to go out and do something about what was upsetting them instead,” Casey said.
During the first Trump administration, undocumented residents who received donations from Second Harvest were scared and having a hard time, so the community support is much appreciated, she said.
Nonprofits serving the county’s most vulnerable communities say they are also receiving overwhelming support from those wanting to lend a hand. The Diversity Center of Santa Cruz has seen more first-time visitors to the center stopping by to check in and simply share their support as LGBTQ+ allies, said executive director Cheryl Fraenzl.
“I think our entire community is actually still working through the stages of grief and trying to figure out, ‘Oh my gosh, what does this mean?'” Fraenzl said. “But what we have seen is just an increase in participation.” It’s not just community allies – members of the LGBTQ+ community are taking the election results as a call to action and showing up to support one another through events at the center, she said.
Just last week, the center hosted a Thanksgiving luncheon for older adults, with plenty of volunteers participating, said Fraenzl. Throughout the event, Fraenzl felt that there was a different feeling in the atmosphere — one of resistance to being pigeonholed and the desire to shine as a community, she said.
Like Tollini, Rich Berger saw the election outcome as a call to action. People around Berger, who also volunteers at the Diversity Center, felt hopeless and angry, but he realized that he couldn’t fall into that state of thinking, he said.
“I believe that change happens from the bottom up, and the way things change are on a personal and community level,” he said. The way to make that happen is to reach out and to be there for people, especially those who are most vulnerable, Berger said.
It’s still too early to feel the impact of the incoming Trump administration on the local LGBTQ+ community, but Fraenzl believes there will be ripple effects in Santa Cruz County. Still, she feels that support within the LGBTQ+ community and among its allies is gaining momentum, similar to other situations the community has faced in the past.
People tend to forget the power of individual actions and that every move people make with compassion and empathy is a powerful step forward, Berger said. That’s the only way society is going to maintain its sanity, he said.
Similarly, the Center for Farmworker Families — which works primarily with undocumented farmworkers — is also navigating the influx of volunteer inquiries following Election Day, said Wendy Gabbe Day, development and events director for the nonprofit.
People are taking interest and realizing how vital farmworker families are to the food system and the community, said Gabbe Day. She’s grateful that people are paying attention, adding that it’s one of the only positive things to come out of this hard situation.
Josie Daly, a longtime Santa Cruz resident, volunteers with the Center for Farmworker Families at its monthly distributions that provide food, clothes and toiletries to farmworking families in Watsonville. The cause is one Daly holds close to her heart, having grown up in one of those families — even working in the fields herself as a young girl.
Daly uses her time volunteering to unplug from politics, focusing primarily on giving back to a community she closely relates to, she said.
“Sometimes all we can do is band together to do good, especially in times like these,” Daly said.
There are real differences and consequences from the elections, said the Volunteer Center’s Delaney. Some nonprofits are on the front lines of issues that Trump talked about during his campaign — like the Center for Farmworker Families that serves undocumented residents in the county — are gearing up for policy changes that could directly affect the community they serve. Other local nonprofits say they are just generally seeing more people wanting to get involved in helping out.
Volunteering has a way of getting people to remember that we’re all neighbors and can all work together — politics aside, Delaney said.
“The way we engage in politics is talking to each other, talking about each other, writing about each other. And the way that you engage in working together is you work side by side,” Delaney said. “That act in itself, working side by side mends communities, it bridges differences.”
A few days after the election, Tollini ran into friends while running errands who expressed their worry about what’s to come. She encouraged them to focus on the things they could do, like volunteering as a way to ease their fears.
“The immediate reaction is, ‘Oh my God,’” Tollini said. “And then it’s, ‘No, this is a call to action.’”
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