For some people, volunteering is something extra they do when they have time, if they have time. For Ralph Iaccarino, a Davenport artist, teacher and musician, volunteering is an essential part of what makes him tick.

Q: You recently celebrated a 60th birthday, but you talk of it more as an anniversary.

A: It’s my 40th anniversary of being a volunteer and teacher in the community. During that time, not only have I pursued my own goals, as far as career, but I’ve been involved in helping the community. I came here when I was 18 to go to college. Ever since I got here, I’ve had good support from the community; I’ve always felt it was important to give some of that back.

I have a philosophy that when I’m trying to work with my own career or helping someone else with theirs, I always try to involve the community, if I can. If you’re doing a transaction with someone, you ask yourself, “How can we involve a third party?” Oftentimes for me, that third part is the community.

Q: Give me an example.

A: If a patron came to buy a piece of artwork, I would include prints with that artwork with the understanding that they would donate them to a nonprofit organization in order to help raise money for the community. About 25 percent of what I produce I give away to different organizations -– non-profits, institutions –- to either add to their collections or to be used in a way that encourages people to donate.

I have a family. I have children and grandchildren; I’m tied by blood to them. But perhaps because I’ve taught for so long, it’s also the well being of other people and other people’s children that is important to me.

Q: When I go around the Quad-Cities, I see you work in a lot of public places -- libraries, schools, hotels, offices, public spaces. Some of this is artwork you’ve given away to promote volunteering. You’re a sort of artistic and voluteerism Johnny Appleseed.

A: Either through patrons or myself, we try to get out as many prints as we can in order to raise funds for important causes in the community. A case in point is the Family Museum in Bettendorf. I have patrons that donate a lot of prints to them to encourage others to join and to help.

Q: You’re involved as a volunteer in a lot of activities: Life at Night, which raises money to encourage young people; “The Creators” series about artists in the community shown on WQPT; the “Art with Mr. I” DVDs used in hundreds of schools to help teach art. How do you find time to do all that stuff?

A: I like to volunteer. I like to encourage other people.

I’ve gone to the Lydia House to teach for several years to try to help inner-city children learn to express themselves through art. I don’t like that attitude some teachers have when they say, “This is going to be very hard, and some of you will get it and some won’t.” The teacher’s job is to light a fire in someone, it’s to instill a hope and a desire that they can accomplish different things, to get them to try and not have reservations.

For me, there’s an equal respect between teacher and pupil. It’s almost as if the role playing goes back and forth. Sometimes you teach, sometimes you learn: the interchange of personality, the sharing of ideas, the practice, the desire to accomplish something. When I’m working with someone, teaching them or helping them, sometimes there’s a problem I’m having with my own work that becomes clarified.

What continually renews my spirit is to work with people. If I have knowledge that’s important in helping an individual learn and develop, what I want to do is to give that to them, to give that away to them.

For whatever reason, when I do that, I become satisfied and fulfilled because I’m making that connection. To me, one of the grandest things that can happen in life is when you make a solid connection with someone else and there’s respect built.

Q: Some people never volunteer. What are they missing?

A: Connection with the people around them. When you volunteer, you go outside of yourself; you extend your personal boundaries. A person who just takes care of themselves has a small radius of consciousness. They are within themselves. When you’re working with other individuals, you gain the satisfaction of a child’s smile, of an older person’s look of thanks. You build your heart, you enrich your soul, and you educate yourself, when you volunteer and go beyond just caring about yourself.

To me, the thing that breeds evil is the illusion of separateness. People need to get past that, and volunteering helps. Like the astronaut said when he looked down on Earth and realized we’re really all in this together.

Michael Romkey is Leader editor.