Talking to people in trouble probably doesn’t sound like the most appealing way to spend some free time. But folks who lend their ears to listen on one end of a crisis hotline say the job is extremely satisfying.

“Sometimes, you become really frustrated and think that everything is falling apart,” says Cynthia Shinoda, a neighborhood resident who volunteers for the Contact crisis telephone line.

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But after Shinoda looks at the other volunteers sitting around her, listening to callers’ problems, she feels reassured.

“It gives me hope and faith in humanity. There really are a lot of people who care,” Shinoda says.

Contact was established in 1967 and provides telephone counseling, crisis prevention and intervention services, emergency aid and referral services for the North Texas area. The non-profit agency offers confidential one-on-one assistance 24 hours a day, and it trains each telephone volunteer.

Volunteers can count on receiving every type of call imaginable, including problems with substance abuse, child abuse, suicide and medical emergencies.

“Every time I’m on the phone, I don’t know what to expect,” Shinoda says.

The shifts for each volunteer are flexible, since Contact is a 24-hour daily hotline.

“I liked the fact that I could do something all night,” says Gaertner, who owns his own business and started volunteering 13 years ago.

“It keeps me in touch with what is happening around me,” Shinoda says.

Suicide and child abuse calls stick out as the most difficult calls to handle, she says.

But Gaertner is optimistic about desperate callers. Their phone call to Contact is a signal the caller is reaching out for help, he says.

“Suicide is not their answer,” she says. “You find they wouldn’t be picking up the phone if there wasn’t ambivalence about it.”

Every call the volunteers answer helps out someone who needs it, Shinoda says.

“It’s a paradox. Sometimes you think you didn’t do anything. But just the fact that you’re there is helping,” Shinoda says.

Gaertner says the work and training have given him a new perspective about interacting with family and friends.

“If you really take it seriously, you can’t help but be affected by it,” Gaertner says.