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Steve Traiman, volunteer for life. By Andrea Lypka
SteveTraiman and his wife, Bonnie, have been volunteering for over 40 years in
“Life down here is great,” Steve says, because volunteering fulfills them. “Like every other community, St. Pete Beach is going through tough times. That’s why I volunteer with the Friends of the Library.”
He also is President of the Bay Area Professional Writers Guild and has been a writer for over 50 years. Traiman has published in Billboard, PanStadia, Stadia, Auditoria, One to One,
Despite his busy work schedule with his Creative Copy by Steve Traiman business writing firm, he finds time to volunteer about 25 hours a month: for the St. Pete Beach Public Library, the board of the Pinellas County Gator Club, a docent at Lowry Park Zoo and in his temple.
“It’s all very rewarding,” he said.
The library has always been important for him, he says. He got his degree in journalism at the
While living in NJ for 31 years, he and his wife, Bonnie, volunteered; they were docents for Bergen County Zoo for 10 years and for 30 years he was volunteering for the Temple Emeth Reform Jewish Congregation.
“Volunteerism came to me naturally,” he said. “I started volunteering in college where I was a member of the Army ROTC Gator Guard Drill Team, Intramurals Office Manager, and with the Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity that did a lot of charity work in
The love of volunteering migrated with them to St. Pete Beach where they moved in 1999. They enrolled into a docent training program and they have been active docents at
“All the more than $25,000 profits we made last year went right back to the
Traiman became the finance chairman of the St. Pete Beach 50th Anniversary Committee in April 2006 and with other volunteers helped raise over $55,000 for its year-long celebration that culminated in a memorable November 9-11 2007 weekend, including a concert and fireworks at Upham Beach with more than 3,000 on hand, and a big dinner dance for 600 at the TradeWinds.
“A net profit of $3,000-plus went back to the city,” he said.
He joined the Friends of the St. Pete Beach Library and became a Board member in 2004. He says that the Friends of the Library with its 200-plus members is an important adjunct to the library because they organize events; they work to acquaint the community about the library’s services, provide monies for unbudgeted items, and assist the library with various activities. Examples include an ongoing monthly event, "Meet the Times Writers" series with the editors of the St. Petersburg Times as guest speakers to talk about memorable stories and answer questions from the audience. For six years the Friends organized A Sunday to Die For mystery tea in January featuring leading mystery authors who either lived in
“Because of the economic situation, we canceled it for this year and 2010,” Traiman said. “We do fundraisers and everything we can because the Library as a city entity faces significant cutbacks.”
Despite the time, Traiman gets a lot of fulfillment from being a volunteer but he also believes in hard and steady commitments. “You only get out of something what you put into it. We always believed in giving back to the community,” he said.
The Traimans brought up their daughters that way, their oldest daughter in suburban
“Every citizen in every community in
