Bill and Judy Stafford

Name: Bill and Judy Stafford

Age: He is 74, she is 60.

Family: He has two sisters and one brother; she has two sisters and one brother.

City of residence: Yuba City, living in the same place for the past 27 years.

How long have you lived in the Yuba-Sutter area? He has been a local resident for 27 years; she was born in Yuba City.

Hobbies, interests: He likes to read, she likes to crochet; they are both avid walkers.

For what groups do you volunteer? They don't drive, so people see them walking a lot, all over Yuba City, they said, making it easier to collect donations for different organizations.

They started out walking for the Multiple Sclerosis Society for six years before becoming part of the Discovery Shop team in the American Cancer Society's annual Relay for Life.

While with the MS Walk, one year Judy raised $7,200, the highest amount for Northern California. Another year, she raised $5,800. They earned a trip because of their fundraising but donated it back to the organization.

They began ringing the bell for the Salvation Army in the early 1990s. They do get paid as bell ringers, but work together in half-hour shifts for eight hours a day, six days a week. They have been in front of various businesses in Yuba City and one year walked over to work in front of Mervyn's in Marysville. You have to be an active bell ringer, he noted.

How do you fit it into your schedule? They do the walk for the American Cancer Society during the summer and bell ringing in the winter.

Why be a volunteer? Bill said that people should volunteer out of the goodness of their hearts. It has to come from within.

Volunteers are the backbone of society, he added.

Quote: Bill — "Volunteering is within in — you will do as much as you think you can."