Peninsula Charity Turning Outward
Vicki Scrimger and Alan Cook are happier from helping people Vicki Scrimger contemplates the reflective listening that is done at the Community Helpline. Photo The rewards of helping others are well known to Vicki Scrimger and Alan Cook, who are among the volunteer angels of the 40-year-old Community Helpline, one of the Peninsula’s enduring and well-known altruistic organizations. Scrimger, a marriage and family therapist, has been helping the Helpline for more than 30 years, about the same time she has been in practice. She helps train the Helpline’s “listeners,” who take about 8,000 calls a year from people with depression, anxiety and a host of other difficulties. She also serves as an ambassador for Helpline, spreading the word to school students and urging her clients to volunteer, with the Helpline or elsewhere, for the therapeutic benefits of helping others. “I started volunteering as a Girl Scout and got turned on to it,” she said. “You’ll never be depressed if you do volunteer work.” Cook, a retiree who writes mystery novels, has volunteered as a listener and trainer for about 10 years. “It is rewarding to me,” he said. “I like the feeling that I’m helping the callers by…
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