Ask people who give time to a favorite organization or cause why they volunteer, and the answer almost always comes back the same: "I get more than I give."

The spirit of volunteering has blossomed in recent years, in all age groups. That's certainly good news.

Some of the area's most dedicated volunteers will be honored by the Area Wide United Way when that organization hosts its annual Volunteer Recognition Awards Luncheon on April 25 at Drury Lodge. For 15 years, the United Way has bestowed much-deserved praise on people from all walks of life who find time to make the day a little better for others.

Volunteer Recognition Awards will be presented in four categories: youth/young adults, 25-under; adult, 26-59; senior adults, 60-over; and group/organization (two or more individuals).

When President George Bush called for all Americans to commit 4,000 hours to volunteer work over their lifetimes, American apparently sat up and listened.

Area volunteers are doing their fair share and then some. Krista Spies, who received the United Way Youth/Young Adults Award last year, has already put in more than 3,500 hours as a junior volunteer at St. Francis Medical Center. Robert Harper, a volunteer at the Jackson Senior Center, gave more than 900 hours of volunteer time over the past year. Harry Schuler volunteers more than 40 hours a week at the Cape Girardeau Civic Center Boys and Girls Club Inc. Harper and Schuler also were United Way volunteer winners last year.

Several volunteers at the Missouri Veterans Home have built up more than 5,000 volunteer hours, and at least eight have 2,000 hours or more. Since the 1990 opening of the facility, more than 220,000 volunteer hours have been served. In 2000, Barbara Yallaly and Euil Trickey had each passed the 6,000-hour milestone. Others -- Agnes Bendel, Vergie Templeton, Frieda Howard, Louis Birkman Jr., Naomi McClard, Hal Scowden, Ralph Chitty, James "Rex" Haynes and Harry Humphry -- were past the 2,000-hour mark.

They are among 122 million -- that's right -- Americans who find time to help make a difference. The value of that time is a whopping $300 billion and substantial change.

Big tower

Donald Talley remembers the day the big tower came tumbling down.

"We figured it would shake the ground," said Talley, who was on hand in December of 1974 when the 350-foot silo went down. "It fell just where they wanted it to," said Talley.

The old Marquette Cement Co. smokestack was constructed in 1936 by the Custodis Construction Co. of Chicago. When the time came to get rid of the tower, the Custodis company was contacted to do the demolition.

The former tower was featured recently in a photograph on the "Faces & Places" page of the Southeast Missourian.

The tower prompted numerous calls to the Missourian, and although the majority pegged it as the Marquette tower, a few callers thought it might have been the smokestack at the old International Shoe Company, on North Main Street in downtown Cape Girardeau.

"I understand they drove a stake in the ground where the tower was supposed to fall," said Larry Smith, who watched from a distance away.

A cement factory has been located in Cape Girardeau since 1910, when Cape Girardeau Portland Cement Company came into being. The plant sold to Marquette Cement Co. in 1923. Lone Star Industries bought out Marquette in 1982.

Bearded brethren

Bob Harper remembers the day he shaved off his mutton chops beard.

"My children cried!" said Harper.

Harper, who was working for the Missourian Printing Company, spent the first eight months of 1956 carefully cultivating his beard for the Cape Girardeau Sesquicentennial Celebration. Harper, who later worked in the Southeast Missouri State University registrar's office, was reminded of his mutton chops last week when a picture of the "Brothers of the Brush" was shown on the Faces & Places page and he was in it.

During the celebration, men had a choice -- grow a beard, or pay a fine. The Keystone Kops policed the celebration and the beard-growing.

Edward Daume, who was also in the picture, said he didn't really get a good start on his "Brothers of the Brush" beard in 1956.

"I started growing it in April," said Daume, then an employee with Midwest Dairy Co. in Cape Girardeau.

He remembers being clean shaven again in August.

"That was about a month after that picture was made," Daume said. "I saw some people I knew in the picture," added Daume who now resides in Perryville.

Marshall Riley, another person in the picture, said he was a beard winner, for best-groomed full black beard. Winners were selected in 11 categories.

G.D. Fronabarger, who shot the picture, also won a prize in the beard contest for having the best mustache and chin whiskers. The late Fronabarger, often referred to as "one-shot Frony," snapped numerous photographs for The Missourian.