Partners In Care Volunteers Donate 1 Million Hours

For more than 30 years, Partners In Care (PIC) has served the aging Anne Arundel County community through a growing base of volunteers with hearts for service. No matter what a senior needs, a volunteer is available to assist. In 2025, more than 2,600 members provided over 1 million volunteer hours, and some of those hours will be used in the future.

Through a unique time-banking and service-exchange model, members can donate volunteer hours served to a pool of available hours for other members, use them for other services, or they can even bank those hours for themselves should they ever need assistance in the future.

PIC members decide how they want to “pay” for assistance. Some choose a minimal monthly payment, while others choose to exchange service-for-service or use banked hours. If a member needs transportation to and from the grocery store because he doesn’t have a car, he can exchange his volunteer hours for that service by making phone calls or sending birthday cards to other members, cleaning out an unused closet and donating the contents to PIC’s Upscale Resale Boutique, or even tapping into the member hours bank.

“We try to give everyone an opportunity to help in any way they can,” said Lauren Lucabaugh, director of member care. “No one should ever feel like they cannot assist. Whatever your expertise, whatever your passion, we probably have a member who needs that assistance.”

For example, a young plumber wants to help his community and signs up to offer free plumbing services to PIC members on Friday afternoons. He’s not expecting that he will need assistance himself in the near future, so he offers his volunteer hours served to the member bank where any member in need might use them.

Planning to retire at the end of the school year, a teacher wants to spend some of her time visiting homebound members, making crafts to sell in the boutique or volunteering there. She can bank her hours for herself to be used in the future.

These and dozens of other scenarios play out every week at Partners In Care. It may seem like a complex system, but really, it’s one loving community full of members who help one another in times of need.

PIC operates in Anne Arundel County, Frederick County, and on the Eastern Shore. More than 709,000 of the volunteer hours last year were served right here in Anne Arundel County. Derek Milley, director of communications, shared that while impressive, PIC expects a 20% growth rate. “Volunteers drive our entire system. We cannot do what we do without them,” he said.

In addition to transportation and the more common needs of seniors, PIC volunteers offer unique services like translation, reflexology, interior home painting, decluttering, even spider catching. If you have a service you’d like to offer, or if you can provide a ride for, share a meal with, or simply reach out to members, Amy Van Orden, director of operations, said PIC has a member who can use your assistance.

To learn more about the services available to seniors, visit www.partnersincare.org. To discuss ways in which you can volunteer your time or talents, contact Van Orden at 410-544-4800 or contactus@partnersincare.org.