Get to know Gabriella Sayger, the city’s new volunteer center coordinator

Monica Zalaznik
August 31, 2019

BUCKHANNON – The City of Buckhannon has hired a new Volunteer Center Coordinator, Gabriella Sayger.

Sager officially started as volunteer center coordinator Tuesday, Aug. 19 and is a senior at West Virginia Wesleyan College. Sayger is from Parkersburg, and she is majoring in English and gender studies as a pre-law student and was previously interning with City Attorney Tom O’Neill.

“I went to a city council meeting my first few days here, and I had heard about this job and it’s really funny because for class I had to go to a meeting like a year before and they had just announced that Casey Gilbert was the Volunteer Center Coordinator,” Sayger said. “I just felt a pull to do it because I’m president of my sorority chapter, Alpha Gamma Delta, and I do a bunch of stuff on campus. I wanted to do something bigger and I want to help more people and I thought that I would give it a shot.”

The Buckhannon Volunteer Center works to connect organizations with individuals looking to participate in volunteer work.

“We are trying to make it so that volunteerism is as sustainable as possible, and the mechanics as easy to access as possible,” Sayger said. “The website reaches a new level of volunteerism because it allows the agencies to reach out for volunteers and it allows volunteers to reach out to agencies and they can work together and people can see what the community really needs.”

She said she hasn’t been at the job for long, but she said the extra work, along with school, is worth it.

“It is a lot of work balancing classes and other things, and I knew it might be stressful. But talking to people is something I thought was a strength of mine, but also it’s something I’m still working on and I realized that I really like it,” Sayger said. “It’s really nice to be able to go to meetings like Create Buckhannon, and it’s just nice to get out there and talk to everybody and give input and things like that.”

She said one of her goals as coordinator will be to use her connections to Wesleyan to encourage more people to utilize the Volunteer Center.

“It’s really cool because we partner with West Virginia Wesleyan already, and I know the head of Greek life, the head of the First Generation students, I already know these people, and I can talk to them,” Sayger said. “I feel like my connections allow me to move within different spaces, which could be harder if you didn’t go to Wesleyan.”

Sayger is currently working to organize the Community and Kindness Day that will take place Oct. 5, and in the future, she hopes to offer classes that will teach people how to use the Volunteer Center services.

“I want to do workshops on how to use our system so that people in the community can feel free to come and use the services,” she said. “It’s great for them because they can see what they’re doing and how simple the site is to use.”

Sayger said she wants everyone to know she’s available for questions during her regular office hours at city hall. Her office hours are 8:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and noon to 2 p.m. Tuesdays and 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursdays.