"Hello, this is Phone Friend."

In a tiny room inside the Wesley Foundation, 256 E. College Ave., volunteers greet children who are home alone and want someone to talk to with this cheery phrase.

From 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, University students and members of the community volunteer to spend time with lonely children over the phone in an organization called Phone Friends.

Although many volunteers are community residents, Phone Friends employs 20 students, many of whom work for Lions Share, said Louise Guerney, professor of health and human development and director of Phone Friends.

"We have a nice blend of students and volunteers from the faculty and the American Association of University Women," Guerney said.

Lions Share is a student group that organizes student volunteering efforts in the community.

Phone Friends was formed in 1982 by the American Association of Women and community members, Guerney said. Services began in 1983, and most funding comes from the United Way, she added.

All volunteers are trained during two evening sessions with an experienced Phone Friend volunteer, Guerney said. The workers are not trained to handle emergency situations, but they can notify the proper services if an emergency call does come in, Guerney said.

"We basically get calls from children who are having the usual everyday problems," Guernery said.

Mary Cooper (junior-elementary education and Spanish) received a call from an 8-year-old boy who won a spelling bee at his school.

"He had no one at home to talk to, so he called me up, and told me what happened," Cooper said.

Mary Severs (freshman-elementary education) has worked for Phone Friends since last semester, and took calls from children on Valentine's Day.

"All the children that called asked me to be their valentine, and told me about all the valentines they had received," Severs said.

Severs said one child called her, pretending he was Napoleon. "He was talking with a French accent," Severs said. "Children who call like to play tricks on us because they have nothing better to do."

Students handle most of the calls and volunteers work when students are away for break, Guerney said.

Some student volunteers work on the Phone Friends line through the Option Serve program, which gives college credit for students who work in any volunteer organization, Guerney said.

These students must work three hours a week, keep a log and write a paper at the end of the semester, Guerney said.

Nancy Richardson (graduate-elementary counseling), who has worked for Phone Friends since last fall, said the response from the community has been very positive.

"We have meetings at the end of the term and the parents that attend are very intersted in the program, and ask questions about it," Richardson said.

"Many of the people I have talked to about the service were latch-key kids, and they wish this service had existed when they were little," Severs said.

Although working for Phone Friends gives her valuable experience for her major, Richardson said she volunteers because she likes working with children and finds hearing a child's voice self-fulfilling.

"I read a children's story over the line to a girl who had called and she enjoyed it a lot," Richardson said.