Volunteering means different things to people.

For some, it means being available to talk to a child home alone.

For others, it means being a friend to an elderly person.

Mary Cooper, Eric Monzon and Heather Haus are such people. They were among 11 students from Lions Share honored this year by the governor's office and the United Way for their volunteer services. Lions Share is a volunteer organization that helps people in the community.

The Citizen Service Day Awards are given to volunteers with more than 100 hours of service. Nominations are made through the organizations they service, said Rose Kelly, communications associate for the Centre County United Way, 117 E. Beaver Ave.

Cooper (junior-elementary education and Spanish) works at Phone Friends in the Wesley Foundation, 256 E. College Ave. The organzation provides a "warm line" children can call if they need to talk to someone.

"Mostly we receive calls from children who are home alone, or are bored and want someone to talk to," Cooper said, who answers calls during a 90-minute shift twice a month.

Although few calls are emergencies, Cooper can alert authorities if one occurs. Most of the time, she is prepared with a soothing voice and a pile of joke books.

"I worked on Halloween night and told jokes to the children on the phone. They really loved it," Cooper said.

Cooper heard about Lions Share at the Student Involvement Fair last year.

Volunteers must complete a 2½-hour orientation session for Phone Friends, where they practice role playing and counseling, Cooper said.

Monzon (junior-health and policy administration) works at the food bank at St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, 208 W. Foster Ave. Each Friday he travels to other community churches to collect food for the bank.

"Once in a while, I see some of the people who benefit from the food bank while I'm working," Monzon said. "It's a very satisfying feeling knowing you're helping people in the community."

Monzon also found out about Lions Share at the involvement fair but only after the program was recommended to him by the Big Brothers-Big Sisters Program.

"I don't have transportation, so they told me to go over to the Lions Share table," Monzon said.

Haus (junior-sociology) worked at the Garden of Children Nursery School, 300 S. Sparks St., last year during Fall Semester and the Adopt-A-Grandparent program during Spring Semester. She said she most enjoyed the Adopt-A-Grandparent program.

"The woman lived in Howard, Pa., and once a week I went with another student," Haus said. "Except for a senior citizen's group and a relative who delivered her mail, we were her only contact with the outside world."

Haus said the trio made plans to go out several times, but never did. But Haus said she didn't mind.

"She really enjoyed talking to us and finding out what we did during the week," Haus said.

Haus now works as an on-call volunteer and goes out when she is needed.

Although being honored by the United Way was exciting, it is not why they volunteer, Monzon and Haus said.

"I would do more volunteer work if I had more time and transportation," Monzon said.