ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, December 25, 1995 TAG: 9512260048
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
COLUMN: The good neighbor fund
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
Every morning, Annemarie Zoller's mother, Sue, drives her from their home in Salem to Roanoke Catholic Schools, where Annemarie is a first-grader. Their route often takes them down Campbell Avenue and up First Street, through neighborhoods that are very different from her comfortable, middle-class home.
Annemarie is just 6 years old, and she can't say for sure what "homelessness" is, but she recognizes poor people when she sees them.
"They were walking on the road instead of riding around in cars," she said, and "their clothes were kind of ripped."
While many people prefer to ignore the poor and homeless, Annemarie decided she wanted to help. Last year, her school sold doughnuts as a fund-raising project. Each child was supposed to find five families who would buy a box of doughnuts every month for eight months.
Annemarie's parents decided to buy all of hers, Sue Zoller said, and then let her decide what to do with them.
"I wanted to bring them to the poor people," Annemarie said.
Rather than let her daughter roam the streets handing out pastry, Sue Zoller looked around for a charity that could use the doughnuts.
She found out through her church about the Roanoke Area Ministries day shelter. The shelter's kitchen dishes out hundreds of hot lunches every week to the poor and homeless. Workers there also try to have hot coffee and something for breakfast available for their guests, who may have spent the night in another shelter or slept on the streets.
Unlike traditional food drives and other charities, where those who give rarely have contact with the recipients, at the day shelter, Sue Zoller said, Annemarie could take the doughnuts directly to the guests herself and see the very people she was helping.
Actually, Annemarie probably only saw the guests on her way out. The stack of doughnut boxes was as tall as she was, her mother said, and were something of a challenge for her to handle. Her parents helped some, but most of the time, she brought them all in by herself.
Signing in on RAM's guest book wasn't easy at first, either, Sue Zoller said, since Annemarie had just learned to write her name. As the year went by, however, her handwriting improved so much that even the shelter manager commented on it.
Annemarie liked the shelter, she said. "I thought it looked nice."
When her friends and her teacher heard about her project, they thought "it was a good thing to do," Annemarie said. They told her "someday they could do it, too."
Annemarie's teachers have told Sue Zoller that her daughter is naturally helpful and generous. On the first day of school, she comforted other children who were scared.
During a recent Thanksgiving food drive the family contributed to, Annemarie came up with the idea of giving baby food instead of adult food, Sue Zoller said.
"It was so the babies could have dinner, too," Annemarie said.
She also is helpful around the house, and this Christmas, her mother said, she and her younger brother went shopping for toys for poor children.
Taking the doughnuts to RAM made her feel happy inside, Annemarie said. "I felt good because I wanted the poor people to have some food. And I had enough food for me."
Checks made payable to the Good Neighbors Fund should be mailed to The Roanoke Times, P.O. Box 1951, Roanoke 24008.
Names - but not donation amounts - of contributing businesses, individuals or organizations, as well as memorial and honorific designations, will be listed in the newspaper. Those requesting that their names not be used will remain anonymous. If no preference is stated, the donor's name will be listed.
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS/Staff. When Annemarie Zollerby CNBstarted taking doughnuts to the RAM House day shelter, she was
barely old enough to write her name.