Become a volunteer!

click for our Volunteer fact sheet

VOLUNTEER APPLICATION FORM

Consider devoting a few hours to helping SCW. Your contact with seafarers from all parts of the world will open a new and rewarding world for you.

Many non-profits claim volunteers make it happen – but at the Seamen’s Center of Wilmington, volunteers not only make it happen, they are the lifeline for international mariners arriving in the State of Delaware.

Imagine leaving your home, family, and all things familiar to go to work for nine months (or more) and not seeing, touching or even tasting your favorite things until your contract is over and you can return home. In a nutshell, that is exactly the life that seafarers experience.

At SCW our volunteer staff help many of these men hold their lives together with a welcoming handshake and an offer of assistance. Volunteers at the Seamen’s Center of Wilmington welcome more than 10,000 mariners every year.

It is common to have volunteers report that they were serenaded by a guitar playing mariner, or that they helped a young man select an engagement ring for his future bride. And it is not unusual for someone to open up their heart and share their personal problems or loneliness.

​Whether it is an amusing anecdote regarding difficult communication or assistance making a mundane purchase, the SCW volunteers have seen it all. And at the end of a day’s work, all of the SCW crew love to share how rewarding it can be to help a stranger in a strange land.

Sunday Fundays with Diane and Lew and crew members of the Hoegh Jeddah!

Preston is ready to go!

If you are interested in joining our volunteer team, please click the link at the top of this page, or send an email [email protected] with your contact information and we will get back to you. Please note that a complete federal background check is required due to our center's location at the Port of Wilmington, DE

VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR!

Our volunteers' hard work does not go unnoticed. Every year we award a "Volunteer of the Year" at our Staff Christmas Party. Here are some of the past awardees:

Diane Olin White, 2023 Recipient

Former recipients

Lew Dorsey, 2022 Recipient

James Gestwicki, 2021 Recipient

Joe Selvaggi, 2020 Recipient and Gardener Extraordinaire

Dick and Linda Lawyer, 2019 Recipients                                  Bob Colburn, 2018 Recipient

Here is a current list of our wonderful group of volunteers! We would be nothing without them!

Linda beran - desk

preston cooper - driver 

jim gestwicki - driver 

jonathan jaffe - driver

richard lawyer - driver

tony mokienko - driver

ravi rangan - driver

gene zaiser - driver

 sarah berninger - driver

 clem dinsmore - driver

 johnny hampton - driver

 randy keim - driver

sue martin - desk

phyllis muyskens - desk

joe ryan - desk

richard carter - driver

lew dorsey - driver

peter hyde - driver

linda lawyer - desk

anita mokienko - desk

diane olin white - desk

allen streett - driver