Volunteering: Ted Yocum’s love for city fuels efforts

Ted Yocum has a lot to offer Maricopa as a volunteer and has advocated tirelessly for the city for years.

“I love Maricopa,” said Yocum, who came here from Philadelphia in 2006. “I just hope that when the day comes that I’m done with whatever I’m doing, the city is in better shape than when I found it.”

Yocum works with Copa Seniors, a group that plans social activities for the community and seniors in general. He’s also a member of the city’s volunteer Planning & Zoning Commission.

Perhaps the most fun Yocum has had as a volunteer was working with the Maricopa Advocate Program, a now-defunct program in which the city enlisted citizens to be hometown evangelists.

“They wanted to get folks who were interested in Maricopa to become even more interested,” Yocum said. “They wanted us to become more knowledgeable about the city, how it works and who does what in the city, and they wanted us as ambassadors to go out and talk to whoever would listen to us about what is Maricopa.”

Yocum excels in retail volunteerism. As a Maricopa Advocate, he was, and remains, comfortable striking up a conversation with anyone.

One time, while at the grocery store, Yocum overheard a conversation.

“One woman was saying to the other, ‘No, I don’t think Frank is going to be interested in coming into Maricopa and starting a store’ and the other woman said, ‘Well, why not?’”
The woman went through a litany of issues that, one-by-one, Yocum refuted, in a polite and friendly yet convincing manner.

Yocum also served on the Maricopa Board of Adjustment.

Read about more volunteers.

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