When it comes to volunteerism, Paul and Donna Ingram apply a team approach.

It’s an approach they’ve perfected over the years, whether it was volunteering at their children’s school, working with United Way of West Central Mississippi, or with their church, First Presbyterian.

“We do most things as a team,” Donna said.

There have been a few individual achievements. Donna was president of the Warren County Economic Development Foundation before it merged with the Port Commission. She was member of the chamber, former president of the Vicksburg Rotary Club and an elder at First Presbyterian.

Paul sings in the choir and presently sings with the Vicksburg Chamber Choir. He also volunteers as a photographer for schools and nonprofit organizations.

“I’ll do event photography for a worthy cause, and that includes United Way. I’ve done the chili cook off,” Paul said. “I did go out and shoot several seasons of Warren Central fine arts series performances, and gave the pictures to the school to use in the yearbooks.”

He is also on the River City Rescue Mission board.

The team approach began when their children were at St. Aloysius, and the couple volunteered to work with the school’s athletic booster organization.

“At that time, we were dealing with about $100,000 a year,” said Donna, who served two years as president. “That’s where teamwork really came in, because we both had different skill sets.

“I’m a forensic accountant, and I understand the importance of controls. So we just implemented controls in each one of the areas where we were involved in, so people knew what was expected of them,” she said. “When people know what’s expected of them, then they can come in and do their job and there’s not many questions, and it ran very smoothly.”

Paul, an architect by profession, did some photography for the school.

“I got into the habit of attending athletic and school events and taking pictures,” he said. “It got up to over 20,000 (photos) a year at my peak for over 14 different activities.”

There was a time, Donna said, when parents wouldn’t bring cameras to events because they knew Paul was going to be there photographing it.

“I did that a lot,” he said. “We used to sell photos to help raise money for the school because I was selling them at cost and the money went to a teacher fund so the teachers could get a Christmas bonus.”

He also prepared the weekly football programs featuring a photo cover from the previous week’s game and did the artwork for the ads inside.

Besides serving as president, Donna assured the school had parents to sell the programs and collect the money, collect admission and handle merchandise sales and parking lot security. She was also responsible for preparing the bank deposits.

“We went from a deficit in the club to when we left, there was  $20,000 in the bank for a rainy day fund. That was all a testament to (everyone) working together and we were fortunate,” she said.

With their children now out of high school, the couple is more selective in volunteering and doing more short-term projects.

One of the projects was the United Way of West Central Mississippi’s Color Run in September in which 750 people participated.

“The Color Run, that was the most fun,” Donna said. “What was fun was watching them  (United Way officials) and seeing their expectations just blown away. They were hoping to just get 100 people.”

“When (the attendance) came around, they were just shocked,” Paul said. “I was real skeptical when they started, and it went really well.”

Having the agencies at the race with booths, Donna said, was good for the United Way and the community, “Because a lot of people in our community don’t know about the services that are available, and this gave them a chance to interact with those people and talk with them, and watch them and realize they need to support.

“Whether it’s monetary or someone giving of their time, there’s a lot of needs in this community and that showcased it in a positive way,” she said.

Another United Way program Donna enjoys is the Leaders Encouraging Advancements in Reading Now, or LEARN program, where volunteers read to third-graders in county schools. United Way, she said, buys a new book for the children every quarter.

“They buy enough so that every child has a book,” she said. “We go out and read that book to the third-graders and leave that book with them. We don’t read the whole book to them, and they have to finish it. They’re excited about it, and that is a fun program.”

She said she learned through the Rotary’s annual distribution of dictionaries to third-graders that often times those dictionaries were the first book they could call their own.

“United Way has taken the lead (in getting more books to children), because we understand the value of children being engaged in reading at a young age is going to mean so much for our school system and for their ability to be productive.”

Paul’s affiliation with River City Rescue Mission came through his Sunday school class at First Presbyterian, which Donna teaches with Circuit Judge Jim Chaney.

“Our Sunday school class is a class of doers,” she said. “We’re fortunate in that our class likes to get out and do projects. We do projects at the (Warren County) Children’s Shelter and we do projects at River City Rescue.”

The class, Paul said, became involved with the Children’s Shelter through its director, Ernie Hall, who spoke one Sunday to the class, “And somebody put me on the list (to volunteer for the board).”

Donna said the class’ involvement with River City came while studying a book, “Same Kind of Different as Me,” the story of a Texas couple’s involvement with a homeless shelter.

“What we decided was to do something and make it personal,” Donna said. “Ernie spoke to the class, and the class cooked hamburgers for the men at the shelter and the people in the neighborhood, because Ernie felt we needed to meet the people in the neighborhood the center served — the people who benefit from the mission’s food pantry and its thrift shop.”

The group also provided books for River City’s Angel Tree and prison ministry programs, and toys for children at Christmas.

One of the benefits of volunteering, the Ingrams said, is the acquaintances and friendships they’ve formed through working with programs.

“What we’re doing isn’t different from what a lot of people are doing,” Donna said. “We’ve been very blessed. There’s no reason why we can’t give of our time and our treasures. We’ve been blessed with it; let’s share it.”

“Vicksburg has a lot of heroes who look at Vicksburg and say, what can we do to improve the quality of life?” Paul said.