April is National Volunteer Month and we have the best VITA volunteers! Now in its sixth year, our VITA program has 24 volunteers plus 3 staff members who have worked hard to provide free, accurate tax preparation for qualified Monroe and Collier county residents.
These volunteers came together with a common goal to help as many lower-income taxpayers as possible. The VITA volunteers meet by Zoom occasionally to get acquainted, ask questions and bounce ideas off each other. This has been a good way to keep our volunteers connected; they share emails and phone numbers and often reach out to each other for a second opinion on tax issues. The volunteers are passionate about the program and work together to solve client’s tax problems and share insights.
In 2020, the UWCK program expanded to include remote preparation due to COVID. When preparing taxes remotely, a volunteer completes a client return, a different volunteer reviews it and then submits it electronically. Often volunteers hand-deliver copies of the completed return to clients in cases that require paper mailing. They regularly give directions on how to contact other government agencies to retrieve lost documents and devise alternate ways to obtain a client’s signature for those with limited technical capabilities. These VITA volunteers go above and beyond in helping our clients; they are great people who are smart, patient, and 100% dedicated to our goal of helping as many low-income taxpayers as possible.
A big thank you goes out to these volunteers!
- Dave Arnold
- Brian Boyer
- Chuck Buehler
- Giancarlos Castano
- Jeannette Chiari
- Rick Dewey
- Jan Diamondstone
- Elizabeth Garnelo
- Traci Herr
- Robert Hopkins
- Carol Jakubik
- Widline Joseph
- Liz Levi
- Clarence Linder
- Chuck Maggio
- Sue Myers
- Michael Reilly
- William Schmalzl
- Bunnie Smith
- Kathy Sympson
- Evelyn Tee
- Tim Tobin
- Denise Toy
- Marv Weisberg
- Al Winston
- Mery Zambrano
- Maggie Zhao
