Kelly Speers loved Huntsville before, but her experience as the volunteer co-ordinator for Chrysalis women’s shelter and supportive housing has given her new respect and admiration for the town and its people.

Born in Bracebridge, Speers returned to this area in the late 80s with with her family after spending several years working in Toronto.

“Huntsville was where we wanted to raise children,” she recalls. “It seemed like ideal community.”

Now, she says, she knows that initial impression was right. Speers can’t get over the way individuals and businesses here have rallied behind Chrysalis.

The mother of two applied for the position of volunteer co-ordinator last fall after seeing an ad in the paper and being intrigued by the job description.  She began work Jan. 15 at Muskoka Interval House in Bracebridge with what she calls a “wonderful group of mentors.”

Then, in mid-February, she moved to the Chrysalis building, which still had no carpets and nothing besides drywall on the walls. “It was very much a work in progress,” she says.

At times, the amount of work required to prepare 10 apartments, six bedrooms and the community rooms seemed overwhelming, but just when she wondered how things would get done, volunteers from the community would arrive.

“For example, high school classes of 30 students and teachers would show up, or sometimes a smaller group of students would come by after school to help,” she says. “I’m glad to say some of them have returned beyond their 40 required community service hours.”

She also had a “phenomenal” core group of volunteers who always went above and beyond.

“I was so proud of the numbers that showed up at the ribbon-cutting,” she says. “It spoke volumes to how this facility has been embraced.”

Now that there are women and children at Chrysalis, Speers’ interactions with volunteers have shifted from organizing groups doing physical labour to finding and training people to meet the needs of the facility and its occupants.

Before Chrysalis opened its doors, any number of people could be on site at a time. However, Speers says that now her top priority is respecting the privacy of the women there. “Confidentiality is very important,” she explains.

For that reason, volunteers must sign a confidentiality agreement and complete 12 hours of training over six weeks in order to spend time at the facility.

“I recognize that time is a valuable commodity,” says Speers, “so when people come and volunteer it means so much to me.”

She says there has been so much interest that Chrysalis will be running concurrent training sessions for the foreseeable future. Speers has found that most volunteers want to help because they have been touched by family violence in some way, like seeing a good friend or relative affected by the problem.

Whatever the volunteers’ strengths, there is a role for them at the facility.

“We have about 14 areas identified as requiring volunteer assistance, and we also ask people to think of other things they might like to do,” Speers says. “There’s a lot of talent in the community, and people are enthusiastic and ready to go.”

Her work at Chrysalis often involves long hours, and Speers says she is fortunate her family supports her.

“I like to help people, and I have a long history of volunteering,” she says. “When the job was advertised, so many people said this job description was written for me.”

She adds that the best part of the job is meeting new people and tapping into their talents and expertise.

“To know I’m making a difference in other people’s lives is job satisfaction at its finest,” says Speers.