News Photo by Julie Riddle Mark Addington, left, and Angela Addington share a laugh on a beach near their Ossineke home as their son, Forrest, looks on. The Addingtons sometimes clean litter off of local beaches, in addition to other volunteer work.

ALPENA — Whether setting up tents, hawking festival merchandise, or delivering Thanksgiving turkeys, an Ossineke couple believes in pitching in to make their community better.

For 20-some years, Angela and Mark Addington have spent weekends and spare hours filling volunteer posts for art, music, and philanthropic efforts around the Alpena area.

Not only is the work a fun way to spend time together, it also furthers causes in which the couple believes, Angela said.

“Help out,” she said. “Make it happen. It’s incredible the things you can experience by being willing to put in a few hours.”

The couple met on Earth Day in 1988, when Mark fell asleep on a bus on his way to an environmental rally and Angela, then a college student and artist, drew a pencil sketch of the “cool hippy dude” as he slept, Angela said.

Since then, they’ve lent a hand toward any effort that appealed to their shared passions of art, music, and care for the environment.

The couple moved to Alpena two decades ago and have since served as a behind-the-scenes force at many an Alpena event, from music festivals to Halloween bashes.

Volunteering allows the couple to use their skills for good, Angela said. A graphic designer, she sometimes creates logos or other materials for events, while her husband offers his skills as a math and computer science educator.

On any given weekend, residents may find the pair selling T-shirts or CDs at a music festival or seating patrons at the Thunder Bay International Film Festival, or perhaps handing out groceries at a pop-up food pantry or picking up garbage on the beach.

Volunteer work often comes with perks, like sitting closest to the stage at a music event as they sell apparel or getting to see great films for free at the film fest, Angela said.

More importantly, the couple gets to help create the community in which they want to live, she said.

They envision Alpena as a welcoming home for arts, culture, and music. When someone spearheads an effort to enrich those areas, “we’re willing to put in a few hours to make that happen,” Angela said.

The couple never made a conscious decision to become a volunteering family — they just did it, the Addingtons said.

Their jobs keep them busy most weekdays, but weekends fill with the volunteer work they both enjoy, and enjoy doing together. Such rewarding, feel-good work strengthens their relationship, even as they strengthen the community by performing it, the couple agreed.

Their son, Forrest, sometimes joins them in their volunteer work. He’s not always as enthusiastic about it as his parents, they said.

The work’s lessons sink in anyway, Mark said, remembering a proud moment from years ago when his son sprinted down a store aisle to pick up a dropped wallet for a stranger.

The itch to get involved came naturally to Angela, whose artistic, activist parents pitched in to support the arts and their community.

The son of a pastor, raised amid church activities and ministry work, Mark learned young to help people less well-off than himself.

Volunteering sometimes shows the couple a side of life that’s hard to see. While delivering food or Christmas gifts to low-income families, the Addingtons see others in dire need and hear stories that make them grateful for steady jobs and ready access to food, electricity, and a roof over their heads.

The couple daydreams of winning the lottery and giving the money away to people who need it.

They don’t have extra money to donate to causes they care about, but they can give their time and energy through volunteering, Angela said.

“While we’re here on Earth, we might as well make it a better place,” she said. “Together.”