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CASS COUNTY — A local nonprofit organization is seeking volunteers to continue providing essential services to Cass County residents for years to come.

Cass County Cancer Service is currently seeking volunteers to help it deliver services to Cass County. The nonprofit aids cancer patients in gas cards for patients, helping with paying utility bills or even just emotional support. The service also provides hospital equipment including beds, wheelchairs, walkers and more. The only qualification for cancer patients to receive assistance from the service is they must live in Cass County.

“All of our volunteers we have had for a long time,” said CCCS President Maxine Ownby, 75. “We need some younger people to step in and help out.”

“It would be really nice to get some people in [to the organization],” added Kenneth Ownby, 76, Maxine’s husband and fellow volunteer at CCCS. “It would really help us out.”

Currently, the organization is assisting more than 100 patients in the Cass County area.

According to the Ownbys, volunteers can work out of their own homes to answer calls for the nonprofit organization and help connect cancer patients with the services they need.

“People think volunteering is hard, but it’s not,” Kenneth said. “It’s easy. It’s not a hard job. It’s really not. You just have to care.”

The Ownbys became involved with CCCS following Maxine’s cancer recovery. In the many years they have worked with the organization, they have grown to be passionate about the work CCCS does and hope new volunteers will have the same drive to help others.

“We just need some people involved who care,” Maxine said. “It’s really not a lot of work. It’s a meeting once a month.”

While Maxine and Kenneth have no current plans to step down from the organization, they believe bringing in more volunteers will allow them to feel the organization is well taken care of when they do eventually decide to take a step back. They also believe more volunteers will be able to help more Cass County residents living with cancer.

“We are willing to do this as long as we have to, and especially if we have new people coming in, we want to train them and make sure everything is done the right way,” Maxine said.

“We want to eventually be able to pass this service on to them,” Kenneth added. “The community always helps us so we can help them. Now, we need more people to help us so that we can help [the community].”

For more information or to volunteer with CCCS, call (269) 699-5551.