Volunteering: Charles donates expertise to history projects

Dorothy Charles spent 27 years working in the federal government, first with the National Parks Service as a park ranger at Grand Canyon, Death Valley and Badlands national parks, then with the Office of Personnel Management. So how does that tie into her volunteer work with the Maricopa Historical Society? Well, it doesn’t — and she said that’s kind of the point.

“When we moved here, I wanted to get to know about the area and meet people,” Charles said. “I volunteered to help out when the Historical Society was only about a year old. I’ve been in Maricopa about 11 years and 10 of them have been with the Historical Society. When I got involved, I found out there were not a lot of resources for us. It’s been exciting and occasionally nerve-racking. I get the nitty-gritty stuff because I like details.”

Those details include helping coordinate a move from the group’s earlier location to its new digs in the former veterans hall on Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway, where it is setting up a city visitor center and renovating the Silver Horizons train car.

Her volunteerism isn’t just a passing fancy. The retiree puts in 60-70 hours per month. But for her, the time is worth it.

“I want to spend my time making life in Maricopa exciting and fun,” she said. “I work on historical collections, membership, organizing guidebooks — a lot of office work. That’s the un-fun part of it, but it’s something that has to be done right.”

Despite the “un-fun” parts, Charles does reap rewards from her work.

“I really enjoy helping people and learning things,” she said. “I’m learning a lot about Maricopa and would like to be able to share all of that a little better.”

Read about more volunteers.

This content was first published in the April edition of InMaricopa magazine.