Monday's leisurely laborers Volunteers: Once a week, a cadre of retired men works at Rocky Gap and other state parks -- with frequent pauses for coffee, lunch and rest.

CUMBERLAND -- The "Monday boys" at Rocky Gap State Park like their coffee breaks.

They start the day that way at 8 o'clock. They break again at 10: 30. They switch to lunch around 1. After a while, they call it a day.

"It doesn't take much for us to sit down," joked Charles Neus, 55, retired from the telephone company.

Between rests, the volunteers sweat hard, every Monday -- snow, rain or shine. The men, whom some have dubbed the "Monday boys," belong to the Volunteer Team Inc., a group in Allegany County with a record that supporters said proves community service can help make up for budget trims.

The team's 300 volunteers, including 50 to 60 "hard core" workers, have done more than $650,000 worth of work since 1992 at Rocky Gap, Dans Mountain State Park and Green Ridge State Forest, said Lori Senese, who is paid by the state as their coordinator.

This year, the team won a Governor's Top Volunteer Award. The team maintains campgrounds, day-use sites and trails in Allegany County. It helps manage Easter egg hunts, canoe trips on the Potomac River, bike races at Green Ridge, youth fishing derbies, scenic autumn railroad rides, a Labor Day corn roast, Halloween parties and bike safety days.

"We couldn't do our job without them," said William Cihlar, manager of the trio of state playgrounds. "It's like having another full-time staff. They do the work of five full-time employees."

The team members, many of whom are organized-labor veterans, are sensitive on one point.

"We don't take jobs away from working people," said John DeMoss, 62, a former glass company worker, the team vice president and the president next year.

Cihlar confirms that volunteers perform work that the 19 paid Forest and Park Service staffers in Allegany cannot get to and that the department cannot afford to create positions to accomplish.

As were other state officials, Cihlar was faced in the early 1990s with a shrinking budget and a hiring freeze at the Forest and Park Service, which is part of the Department of Natural Resources.

In the winter of 1990-1991, 18 parks were closed temporarily. Some, like Dans Mountain, stayed closed until July 1. Managers were told to trim budgets. The closings were designed to save $178,000 and help reduce a state budget deficit.

"We had only a few volunteers here in 1991, mainly kids looking for high school credits," Cihlar said. "When we got our budget for 1992, we no longer had the ability to do our jobs. I took some money out of the labor pool and invested it in a volunteer coordinator."

Cihlar hired Roberta Dorsch, a Girl Scout executive who had volunteered at Rocky Gap. Dorsch searched for volunteers among firefighters, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, students, senior groups. She and Cihlar also held town meetings.

Allegany people responded. About 200 devoted 9,000 hours from March to December 1992. A strong program was born.

Dorsch left in spring 1994, when her husband's job changed, and Senese took over a month later. Dorsch went to a similar job in Southern Maryland state parks, expanded their volunteer program and coordinates about 300 volunteers.

Statewide, about 10,000 year-round and seasonal volunteers work in 50 Forest and Park Service facilities; some of the volunteers 18 and older are uniformed park rangers, Dorsch said from her base at Smallwood State Park in southern Charles County.

"But they're my baby," Dorsch said of her many Allegany buddies. "They'll do anything to keep the parks going: answer phones, paint Dumpsters, clean toilets. They love the parks."

Volunteer coordination is not casual. Records detail every hour worked, Senese said. The 300 full-time and seasonal helpers a year have logged 65,000 hours since 1992.

At a minimum of $10 an hour, their work has been worth about $650,000. Their real value in maintenance, friendships and help for tourists is far greater, Senese and Cihlar said.

Volunteers are rewarded: a team hat or mug after 10 hours of work; team T-shirt or bag after 25 hours; annual pass for all Maryland forests and parks after 50 hours; seven nights of free camping, use of the rifle range or canoes after 100 hours; 14 nights of free camping or pavilion rental after 250 hours.

To raise and spend money on parks without state red tape, the Volunteers became a registered, nonprofit, tax-free 501(c)(3) agency two years ago, Cihlar said.

This winter and spring, the team and the state each gave $500 for lumber. The Monday boys built 53 picnic tables for the three parks.

The crew is made up of retired men who live in the Cumberland area and each put in 300 to 600 hours a year. They get their assignments from park technician Kenneth E. Mossburg. His judgment: "Great camaraderie there."

The Monday men these days work around an obstacle course. Rocky Gap is a beautiful setting of mountains, meadows and the lake, named for a local man.