NORWAY — If Ethel Lacourse isn’t playing the piano at a nursing home, calling bingo at the local veterans home or standing behind the cash register at the Stephens Memorial Hospital coffee shop, she is probably at one of her 17 other volunteer jobs. Or she’s at the gym on the treadmill or weight training for two hours at a time.

“I’m not the person who wants to sit around,” said Lacourse, who turns 82 in November.

Lacourse is one of hundreds of Mainers who belong to the Maine Education Association – Retired. Its members have volunteered more than 104,000 hours of service to schools, churches, libraries and local service organizations from April 2010 to March 2011.

In fact, Lacourse, who worked for many years in the Oxford Hills School District as a high school secretary and bookkeeper, is one major reason why Oxford County logged the second highest number of volunteer hours — 12,975 — by association members in the state this past year. Only York County had more volunteer hours with 17,911, according to information from the association.

Androscoggin County logged 4,486 volunteer hours with help from Elizabeth Bell, who had the most number of volunteer hours in that county, and Franklin County logged 2,732 hours with the assistance of top volunteer Trudy Dawson.

The volunteer hours are worth more than $2.2 million in free service, according to the association. The MEA-R released the information recently as a way to show the public how much time retired members of the association, which includes teachers, school secretaries and others, contribute.

“The public and Maine Legislature need to know that even though we are retired, we still care and continue to donate our time and energies to the citizens of Maine,” said MEA-R Community Participation Chairperson Jan Cerabona of Saco. According to information from the association, the volunteer service hour is worth $21.36, based on data from the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

To celebrate their accomplishment, MEA-R President Gwen Strout of Harrington and 40 MEA-R members presented a symbolic check for $2,220,741.20 to Maine Senate President Kevin Raye at the State House recently.

Lacourse’s volunteer work is varied and impressive. She visits the local nursing homes during church services to play piano, something she took up at the age of 5 thanks to her parents, who instilled a love of music in their children.

She visits Protestants but also gives communion to Catholics when she visits local nursing homes. She is a lector at her church, St. Catherine’s in Norway. She spends a lot of time at the Maine Veterans’ Home in Paris, playing piano for the monthly birthday parties and Catholic Masses. She even calls bingo at the veterans’ home.

She is an officer with the Norway Grange No. 45, where she has been a member for more than 65 years, the Oxford Legion Auxiliary, Oxford County Council and St. Catherine’s, and she plays the piano for the Oxford Pomona Grange #2. She also transports housebound elderly people, something she says that is especially important to her.

She has spent the last 20 years volunteering at the Stephens Memorial Hospital coffee shop. She cooks for the Legion Auxiliary bingo games and suppers, and registers folks for blood drives, where she has earned a “3-gallon pin” for her own blood donations.

“I just plain get up every morning at 6:30 go to church and go to breakfast,” Lacourse said of how she likes to start each day when she doesn’t have to run to an early-morning volunteer gig.

“I really enjoy helping people. I’m just a people person,” she said.

ldixon@sunjournal.com

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