Mary Cole is one seriously hard worker.
And sheβs not even on the payroll.
Still, for more than 20 years, the 91Β½-year-old β sheβs very adamant about that half β has clocked a weekly, three-hour shift at Reid Park Zoological Society.
βThis is my area,β the devoted volunteer says, gesturing toward a blue table. Sheβs just arrived for her regular Wednesday morning gig. Stacks of membership cards are neatly lined up on the blue table, along with two piles of letters and a box of envelopes.
βWe have 14,000 members a year, and Mary sends all their cards,β says membership specialist Sara Gromley.
Cole points out a little, red bowl flecked with white polka dots and filled with Hersheyβs Miniatures, and Gromley, who shares work space with Cole, delivers a hot mug of black coffee.
βThey spoil me here,β Cole says, smiling.
It was probably 1992 or β93 β Cole canβt recall exactly β that she began helping out around the office just east of the zoo.
Zoological staffers readily admit that luring volunteers is tough. Most people want to help at the zoo and be around the animals. But Cole adores desk duty.
βI just love messing around with paperwork,β she says.
Sheβs shredded documents, cut paper for kidsβ projects, curled ribbon for fundraising baskets and even made necklaces strung with pretzels for the zooβs recent Brew at the Zoo event this summer.
βWhen I run out of work, they give me all kinds of crazy things to do,β she says. βItβs so much fun here.β
There are six other Mary Coles in town. Used to be seven, but one passed away, and much to this particular Mary Coleβs amusement, sympathy cards began arriving.
βI just put on the envelope βnot yetβ and mailed βem back,β she says.
The mother of three, grandma to five and great-grandma to nine moved from Oregon to Tucson with her husband and year-old son in 1946, as a way to help her husbandβs debilitating asthma. She worked different jobs, had a few more kids and after her husband was hired as a University of Arizona police officer, took advantage of the tuition breaks employees received.
βIt was $5 a semester,β she says.
It took her seven years of night and summer classes to earn a bachelorβs degree in elementary education only to discover, βIt wasnβt my cup of tea.β
Another seven years later and she had earned a masterβs in library science, which she put to use at Pima Community Collegeβs West Campus.
After Coleβs husband passed away in 1989, she busied herself volunteering on different boards, such as the League of Women Voters. She ended up on a committee to raise money for the zoo and then asked if she could do some office work.
βIβve been with them ever since,β she says.
Cole predates Diana Whitman, the Zoological Societyβs development director, by more than 10 years.
βItβs not real fun work, but itβs whatβs important for us,β says Whitman, who praises Coleβs organizational skills and positive attitude.
βShe is a huge help β sheβs more than a help,β Whitman says. βWe look forward to her being here.β
Whitman says she loves when Cole stops by her office after her shift ends to share stories. Cole, whoβs into genealogy, has self-published books about her family as well as her late husbandβs.
Along with her zoological society work, Coleβs been donating time at the Postal History Foundation. After mentioning that she sometimes runs out of things to do around her northeast-side house, her supervisor there started giving her βhomework,β like removing stamps from envelopes and sorting them.
Cole, obviously, loves to stay busy. Sheβs active in the Danish Club, studies French, reads everything βI can get my hands onβ and goes out to lunch β Codyβs Beef βn Beans is her fave, but she also likes the Arizona Inn.
Her latest project is her memoir, which sheβs writing longhand in pencil and will later type up on her trusty IBM electric.
βIβm up to 1937,β she says and then adds with a chuckle, βI donβt have a very good memory. It may be a great bore.β
