The act of building your community inevitably takes multiple paths – from cultivating work and school friends, to maintaining close family ties. But there’s another dimension that requires a little more time and reaps rewards beyond measure.
By Zachary Lewis
Voluntering isn’t just a good thing to do. It’s an entry point to a community, a way to gain friends, skills, and purpose. Nowhere is that truer than in Shaker Heights, a city teeming with nonprofits and volunteers, with organizations and individuals dedicated to making this corner of the world, and the whole world, a better place. To volunteer here is to put down roots, to invest in the community and seek a sense of belonging. Here are the stories of four locals whose journeys are living proof that in Shaker, it really is better to give than to receive.
Bryson Haynes, senior director of education and youth development at the Urban League of Greater Cleveland. Photos by Gus Chan.
Bryson Haynes
For Shaker resident Bryson Haynes, there was no journey to volunteering. It’s been part of his life from the start. Now, it’s also his career. Volunteering is “the fabric of who I am and how I operate,” says Haynes, senior director of education and youth development at the Urban League of Greater Cleveland.
Volunteering is the fabric of who I am and how I operate.
“I’m always searching for opportunities, big or small. It’s a service mindset.” Growing up in Pasadena, California, Haynes was at first the beneficiary of volunteers. His local Boys & Girls Club was a home away from home. But it was more than that, too. Beyond keeping him safe and developing his selfconfidence, the facility and its mentors also introduced Haynes to basketball, which he eventually parlayed into a spot on the team at South Dakota State University. Giving back to nonprofit youth sports and education programs after college then set Haynes on his career path, providing him experience that led to jobs with the Atlanta Hawks and, in 2020, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Overall, basketball opened many doors, Haynes says. One of those doors, in 2023, was to his current post at the Urban League. There he oversees, among others, a program he once served as a volunteer: My Brother’s Keeper Greater Cleveland. For a service-minded person like Haynes, Shaker is the perfect place to call home. Not only does the City boast real diversity and top-notch schools, it’s also full of other volunteers like him and replete with ways for him to keep giving back. At the moment, he’s serving on the board of the Shaker Schools Foundation, mentoring for Shaker Youth Collaborative, and coaching a flag football team. Shaker “falls right in with who I am,” Haynes says. “It reminds me a lot of home and gives me a lot of comfort. If Shaker is my landing spot, I’m in a good place.”
Melanie Cornelius at the Shaker Heights Public Library
Melanie Cornelius
The story of how technical writer Melanie Cornelius found her people has all the makings of a lovely short story. Which is perfect, because one of her enduring loves is books. Cornelius and her husband, both of whom work remotely for the same software company, moved to Shaker Heights from the West Coast with no experience or any roots here. All they wanted was to be on this side of the country, closer to their parents. Cleveland was their top choice because it ticked all the boxes: Besides a great lake, it boasted a great library, a great airport, and great culture. It’s the library where Cornelius, an avid reader who used to beg her local library to check out more books, found her home. Volunteering for a Friends of Shaker Library event, the Alabama native discovered a facility both avidly used and vigorously cared for. Her niche, in other words. “It’s important to me that people have access to what they need from their library, and this is a group that literally supports that,” she says.
It’s a passion of mine that people have the proper information.
But Cornelius isn’t only a friend of books, magazines, and recordings. She also believes in access to unbiased political material. Hence the community she found as a volunteer with the Shaker chapter of the League of Women Voters of Greater Cleveland. “It’s a passion of mine that people have the proper information,” Cornelius says. “People need the actual facts, not a TV ad or mailer.” For Cornelius, who works entirely from home, volunteering is more than just a way to support causes near and dear to her. It’s also her social network. It’s her bridge to a community she entered with no prior connections. “I wanted to help out, in whatever ways I could,” she says. “But then you just start to get to know people, and they get to know you.”
Elliot Glrioso Rendall at work at the Shaker Historical Society
Elliot Glorioso Rendall
Two formerly mandatory pursuits have become two wholly voluntary guiding lights for Lomond neighborhood resident Elliot Glorioso Rendall. Between an elementary-school extracurricular and their high-school senior project, the 2023 Shaker Heights graduate has found both a rewarding career path and a uniquely enjoyable way to spend their free time. The former emerged from Rendall’s high-school senior project co-curating and promoting an exhibit called “Shaker Sells” at the Shaker Historical Society. So thankful was Rendall for the opportunity, they entered and have remained in the society’s circle of friends, stepping up whenever the facility needs helpers. “I continue to be so grateful to do anything with them,” says Rendall, now a senior graphic design student at Cleveland State University. “I’ve grown to love volunteering in Shaker.” But the Historical Society has given Rendall more than just a platform for their senior project. It’s also given them a sense of direction. Curating and volunteering have “helped inform a lot of my career choices,” Rendall says, noting their wish to work at a museum of some kind. “They made me realize that I want a job focused on community involvement.”
It’s been really great giving back to the community that raised me and has been so formative for me.
Meanwhile, Rendall remains involved around Shaker in other ways. When they aren’t studying or working, Rendall’s a volunteer coach with Girls on the Run, a Northeast Ohio-based program that uses running to teach life skills and promote empowerment. Rendall participated in the program as a child, and now enjoys paying it forward by prepping elementary school-age girls to run 5K races. The training sessions are “some of the brightest spots in my week,” Rendall says, further proof that they’re a volunteer at heart. “It’s been really great giving back to the community that raised me and has been so formative for me,” Rendall says. “It has shaped who I am and what I want to do with my life.”
William McRae, a mentor for the Shaker Schools MAC (Minority Achievement Committee)
William McRae
Working with children wasn’t part of the retirement plan for Shaker native William McRae. All he wanted, after 30 years in the U.S. Army, was to continue giving back in some way. Then, a way found him. By chance, he connected with Hubert McIntyre, his favorite former teacher and leader of Shaker’s MAC (Minority Achievement Committee) Scholars program. Before long, McRae was hooked; mentoring current students the way McIntyre had mentored him and helping run a climbing program at Shaker Rocks. His goal in both is to be like McIntyre, “He presented himself in a way that was something to emulate,” says McRae, “For me, it’s about interacting with the kids. With them, I feel hopeful.”
Community, teamwork, and camaraderie are the hallmarks of my existence.
McRae’s journey to a fulfilling retirement has also led him to give back in other ways, deploying other skills and talents. After contemplating a run for political office, he opted instead for a post in the City’s Civil Service Commission. He’s now completing a term for a member who stepped down early. He’s also volunteered, with other Shaker alums, at Rid-All Green Partnership, an agriculture nonprofit in Cleveland’s Kinsman neighborhood. For sheer fun, though, nothing in McRae’s “giving back” portfolio beats the Bill McRae Group, a musical combo he formed as a way to keep playing his beloved saxophone after taking it with him all over the world for the duration of his career in the Army. Lining up and playing gigs, such as a recent show at the Bop Stop, not only keeps him busy and entertained. It also plays to his natural leadership skills and scratches his lifelong itch to make a difference in the lives of others. “I hope people who come to our shows are happy at the end, because of the music we play,” McRae says. “Community, teamwork, and camaraderie are the hallmarks of my existence.”
