I’d like to talk a little about the volunteer.

It is amazing to me the number of services in our area that people get for free that people are paid to do in other places.

If there was a car accident, the people who come and block off the street and set up flares and direct traffic to keep people safe, those would be police officers being paid by the municipality. For us, they are fire police who volunteer their time.

If there is a fire, no one pays the people who run into our burning buildings and risk their lives to save our lives and property. Those are all volunteers who know that the most they will get out of it is the satisfaction of doing a good deed.

We have parks, the money for which was raised by volunteers. We have volunteers that do their best to improve the economy of the area through event planning and marketing. We have volunteers that do things some people don’t even realize are being done, or that most people don’t realize could earn them a paycheck in Pittsburgh or Philadelphia.

And we have volunteers who show up week in and week out just because a job needs to be done.

Judy Sinclair is part of the beating heart of the Moshannon Valley YMCA. It’s not a surprise that her son, Brian, was one of those people that the Y could always count on to lend a hand. Helping out there was something he was raised to do, even when he had a bad back, even when he was fighting cancer.

When Brian died in October 2010, his mother didn’t want flowers. Instead, donations were made in Brian’s name to the Y for something that would be there, day in and day out, just like him, always there to help someone. This week, the Y dedicated the Brian Sinclair Children’s Fitness Room, where a whole new generation of Philipsburgers can get strong and learn to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Now that’s a volunteer.

Lori Falce writes a weekly column on news in the Philipsburg area. She can be reached at send lorinews@gmail.com.