THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 22, 1995 TAG: 9511180327
SECTION: ISLE OF WIGHT CITIZEN PAGE: 6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
LENGTH: Long : 313 lines
Holidays are for celebrating.
They force us to depart from our routines long enough to take note of where we are as individuals or as a nation. They range from individuals marking another birthday to more than 250 million citizens collectively enjoying a Fourth of July spectacular.
November offers a unique invitation to us all. At Thanksgiving we're asked to count blessings on many levels.
It's a celebration of community like no other occasion during the year.
The holiday starts a monthlong season of giving and sharing, of helping those less fortunate.
For some, it means working through charitable organizations to feed and clothe those in need Others organize concerts, sales and other events to raise funds toward the effort.
Nobody's prohibited from joining in, what with regional efforts like the Salvation Army's kettle crews and bell-ringers, the Marine Corps' Toys for Tots campaign or this newspaper's annual Joy Fund, which are open to all.
But today, we'd like to take note of some personalized efforts by your Hampton Roads neighbors to reach out to others.
We'd like to both recognize their endeavors and share them with you in hopes of inspiring others to join their acts of kindness. 2 women head up local Thanksgiving Basket Brigade
VIRGINIA BEACH
LAST THANKSGIVING EVE, Barbara Hodge and Anne Smith learned firsthand that it is better to give than to receive.
The two women, who work for Century 21 Charter Realty, had just returned from delivering baskets of turkey and all the trimmings to 21 needy Virginia Beach families. As they stood in the office parking lot and breathed tired, but happy, sighs, a woman with two small children drove in.
``She said she had no food,'' remembers Hodge, ``and we were shy another turkey.'' So Hodge hurried to a nearby grocery store, and she and Smith quickly put together a food basket for the woman, including cranberry sauce, potatoes and other vegetables, stuffing, rolls and apples. Hodge will never forget the unbounded thanks of the mother.
``She threw her arms around my neck and cried. And to think that she was thanking us, and we should have thanked her.'' The givers are the ones who reap the rewards, said Hodge.
Again this year Hodge and Smith will pack and deliver baskets to families who would otherwise not be able to afford the traditional American holiday meal. They will collect money from others in their office, then go shopping, stretching the dollars to put together more baskets than last year.
The feeding project is part of an international effort, the Thanksgiving Basket Brigade, a worldwide movement spearheaded by the Anthony Robbins Foundation. The California non-profit group calls on grassroots advocates for the poor and homeless to reach out their hands to help. Last year, nearly 10,000 families in more than 100 cities in the United States and Canada received food baskets through the effort.
``We are hoping to grow until at last, one day, no one will be hungry, at least on Thanksgiving,'' said Hodge.
The list of needy families is compiled by local coordinator Tracy Brown of Realty Executives and comes from the Department of Social Services and local churches. But Hodge wants input from other grassroots advocates and has put out a call for names to add to next year's list.
``You can't solve the problems all at once, but it's so sad to see the list of names, to think that many went without,'' Hodge said. ``Somewhere in your heart you have to look out for others.''
On Thanksgiving, Hodge also will join with homeless advocate Maria Santos in an effort to reach those who don't have the means to prepare a meal.
They will pass out heaped, steaming plates of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy and stuffing to men and women on the streets and in the woods.
- Nancy Lewis, Correspondent `Come in from the Cold' musical has warm ticket price
SUFFOLK
ENJOY THE SONGS and skits, but don't bring money. Listen to the blues, jazz and spirituals. But, please, no money.
Instead, bring a new or used coat or sweater. That's the admission price for ``Come in from the Cold,'' a seasonal musical revue featuring 15 parishioners of Church of God of Prophecy on Holland Road.
It'll be a good time for a good cause: The garments will be given to the Salvation Army to distribute to the needy for Christmas.
The revue, Dec. 17 at 7 p.m., features skits mixing humor and pathos. And, said director Patti Strickland, ``a little bit of choreography, as much as the church will let us do.''
A coat figures in each skit: A beggar helps a stranded motorist, and the motorist gives him his coat; a little girl puts coats on shepherds in a Nativity scene.
Behind it all, Strickland said, is the theme that ``Jesus is the one who can warm the weary heart.''
The revue is one of numerous help-your-neighbor activities of the 69-member congregation. The church also prepared turkeys for the Salvation Army's Thanksgiving Day meal, and 22 Church of God of Prophecy volunteers will help serve them, said the pastor, the Rev. Billy Paramore.
Church members also will fill two boxes for Toys for Tots; The Dorcas Club will fill boxes of gifts for the elderly, and church youths will deliver them to nursing homes; money will be sent to a church mission in Puerto Rico.
``I think all this is great for a church this size,'' Strickland said.
Paramore said, ``We want to be a community church. We haven't been that in the past, but now we're reaching out, trying to meet needs.''
- Frank Roberts, Staff writer Club De Porress members fed indigent, homeless families
PORTSMOUTH
LAST THURSDAY, four members of Club De Porres spent nearly two hours in Rack & Sack filling two grocery carts with 25 pounds of canned green beans, 10 pounds of smoked jowls, 10 pounds of potatoes and four pounds of bacon.
They also picked up four dozen eggs, four rolls of aluminum foil, two 64-ounce bottles of ketchup and two pounds of brown sugar.
On Friday, another club member, Leroy Mitchell, spent the entire day cleaning, cooking and seasoning collard greens - three bushels of them.
These ``do-gooders'' were just four of the dozens of members of the organization who worked behind-the-scenes for weeks in preparation for last Sunday's feeding of at least 100 indigent and homeless people at the club's home, 901 High St.
``I see it as a team-building effort,'' said club president Reginald Connor. ``It's a common cause that we all rally around to support.''
More than half of the club's 128 members offered to help with the meal, which has been held annually since 1989.
A majority of the food, including eight large turkeys and several hams, was donated and prepared by individual members in their own kitchens prior to the meal.
On Sunday, at least two dozen members were on hand to serve the food and to run last-minute errands.
``These people aren't looking for recognition,'' said Connor, a member since 1970. ``The only thing they're doing is they're seeing to it that we have a finished product.''
Club De Porres, founded in 1943 as a black Catholic club, is a non-profit organization that focuses on charitable, social and religious work.
``The charitable effort is an integral part of our organization,'' said Connor.
In fact, the club has a committee dedicated to nothing but philanthropy. It is named after one of the club's past presidents, George L. Parker.
``Even though we were working in charity over the years, Mr. Parker sort of took it to another level,'' explained Connor.
Similar pre-Thanksgiving Day meals were held last weekend by the Shriners of Arabia Temple No. 12, which served its 13th annual dinner to the elderly, and by the Prentis Place Civic League, who served the elderly, shut-ins and the homeless with a feast at Wesley Community Center.
Mitchell, who prepares the collards each year for the Club de Porres dinner, says he does it because ``I'm part of the club, and I feel like it's something that I want to do, something that I can do.''
Gloria Dunbar, who chaired the committee in charge of the dinner, participates every year because it gives her a ``real good feeling'' inside.
``I just love doing it,'' she said. ``I love helping people, just to see the expressions on their faces, especially the children.''
- Rebecca A. Myers, Staff writer Social Services volunteer shops for those who can't
ISLE OF WIGHT
LIKE SANTA CLAUS, Wendy Perry is making her list and checking it twice.
But she doesn't have quite as much responsibility as Santa. She has only three people dependent on her to bring a little holiday spirit into their lives, and they are not her children, not even members of her family.
Perry, of Windsor, is what they call a volunteer representative payee. It's her responsibility to manage the incomes of clients of the Isle of Wight County Department of Social Services who, because of mental or physical limitations, cannot manage for themselves.
Social Services administers the program for the American Association of Retired Persons. As a volunteer, Perry writes checks each month to pay bills for food, housing and clothing. She's responsible for her charges' well-being throughout the year and checks on them periodically to make certain they have everything they need to live comfortably.
And she's often surprised.
``Last year, during one of our shopping trips, I took one of my people to the Price Club, and she'd never been there before. A simple shopping trip to the mall is like taking a child to a toy store for the first time. It's wonderful to see it through their eyes.''
Perry also discovered that two of her charges had never had a Christmas tree. She managed to find enough money in the tight budgets she works with to buy small, artificial trees and ornaments.
``I get to see pure joy in their faces caused by the smallest things,'' said Perry, mother of three and a part-time secretary at Windsor Baptist Church. ``I always try to take them shopping at least once around Christmas. It's a good time to catch up on winter coats and clothing needs. I found out last year that one had never had a radio. We bought a radio and some Christmas music tapes.''
Perry is just one of the county's Department of Social Services' holiday helpers.
Calls started coming in from the community before the first of November, said social work supervisor Gloria Wilson.
``People in this county are very generous with their time as well as their donations,'' she said.
The department works off a computer file called the ``holiday book,'' which keeps track of organizations and people who have volunteered and matches them with underprivileged individuals and families.
The department also coordinates two toy-giving efforts in the county: the Joy Fund, sponsored by The Virginian-Pilot, and the Isle of Wight Christmas Fund, sponsored by the Smithfield Kiwanis Club.
``People are very cooperative in working with us,'' Wilson said. ``We've had some this year ask for families for both Thanksgiving and Christmas.''
``My mother always had a special saying,'' Perry said. ``She would tell me, `Life is like a play. We need only to play the part meant for us.' I'm not special because I volunteer my time for something like this. I'm just doing what I'm supposed to be doing.''
- Linda McNatt, staff writer Church youngsters provide teddy bears for Jamaicans
CHESAPEAKE
ABOUT 400 STUFFED animals of all colors, sizes and descriptions have become part of a mission of love to a group of children in Jamaica.
Linda Miller and Nevin Mast, both 17, are members of Mount Pleasant Mennonite Church in Chesapeake. They, along with April Heppler, 16, of Springs Mennonite Church in Springs, Pa., traveled to Jamaica last summer for a three-week missionary project to a rural, mountain village on the island in the West Indies.
``It was an area of extreme poverty,'' Miller said. ``There was absolutely nothing - no running water, no electricity, no food. The people scrounged daily for food.''
The volunteer work was under the direction of the Virginia Mission Mennonite Conference program called ``Partners in Mission.''
The three young volunteers led Bible-study sessions for the people and donated their labors to renovate a two-room hut, where seven people made their home. They repaired the roof and painted the dwelling that had been damaged by a hurricane several years before.
Miller asked a 17-year-old Jamaican girl what she would most like to have. The girl said she had always dreamed of having a teddy bear. None of the children in the village had ever owned a stuffed animal.
When Miller and Mast returned from the trip they shared the story with members of their congregation at Mount Pleasant Mennonite Church. The children of the church decided to share what they had with the children of that Jamaican village. They began to collect stuffed animals and teddy bears.
``About 400 used but tenderly cared for animals were brought to the church,'' said Miller. ``Now these animals are on a mission of love to other children.''
The animals will be shipped to Jamaica and should arrive in time for Christmas.
- Susan W. Smith, staff writer Jaycees cooking up a hot meal for needy
NORFOLK
THEY COME IN FROM the darkened street with collars turned up against the chilly wind that blows through the city at night. Inside, they quietly gather, blinking as their eyes become accustomed to the light.
They're members of the Norfolk Jaycees, the state's oldest chapter of that organization, and they're cooking up their annual food-basket program. They're plotting to bring the warmth of the holiday spirit by providing a hearty, nutritious meal to 50 needy Norfolk families.
The Norfolk Jaycees have been collecting food from individual and corporate donors and sorting it; if there is anything left over - last year they had six extra turkeys - it goes to the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia.
``We try to do the whole meal,'' Norfolk Jaycees treasurer Bob Wilhelm explains. ``We're pretty successful at getting milk, corn, cranberry sauce, other canned goods, potatoes, pies, soda, and bread and rolls. A lot of this comes together at the last minute.''
Susan Acken, the group's community development vice president, says:
``Somehow we manage. Last year somebody gave us Twinkies; we'll take what we can get.''
Last year a local food-service wholesaler donated about half of the turkeys. This year that wholesaler has been bought out and is donating none. Gene Walter's Marketplace, on 21st Street, allows the Jaycees to put out a box soliciting grocery donations from shoppers. No turkeys turn up in the box, but it helps.
Wilhelm chaired the project five years ago and has volunteered every year since.
``Trying to organize it,'' he says, ``you learn so much. I also donate every year because you realize just how hard it is.''
The Jaycees have been doing their food-basket program for 16 years. About 40 of their members get involved with the project in some way. The collected food is stored at the Foodbank. On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, the food is sorted into boxes; on Wednesday, the Jaycees deliver it. Afterward they gather at the Foodbank for a ``thank you'' party for those who make it happen.
``We have people that do nothing else but come out for this project,'' chapter president Bill Shriver says. ``It's like a reunion for older chapter members.''
A week and a half before Thanksgiving, the Jaycees' list of corporate guardian angels included Food Lion, Price Club, Camellia, Laguna Bakery, Continental Baking Co. and Pet Food. Each had made a contribution to the program.
- Dawson Mills, Correspondent MEMO: This story appeared in all community news sections on November 22 and
November 23. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by STEVE EARLEY
Anne Smith, left, and Barbara Hodge, who work for Century 21 Charter
Realty, collect money from others in their office, then go shopping,
stretching the dollars to put together baskets for those who can't
afford a traditional Thanksgiving meal.
Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER Dorothy Leggett, left, and Windy
Casper sing from the book, ``Come in from the Cold,'' which the
youngsters from Church of God Prophecy will perform for a coat or
sweater admission.
Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN Nevin Mast, left, and Linda Miller,
members of Mount Pleasant Mennonite Church, are packing up 400
donated stuffed animals to send to poverty-stricken children in
Jamaica.
Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY
Wendy Perry, a representative payee with Isle of Wight County social
services, selects a mattress for one of the people she is assigned
to shop for. A volunteer, Perry writes checks each month to pay
bills for food, housing and clothing.
Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL
Shirley White, a member of Club De Porres, loads up on groceries and
staples, which the 128-member group used to feed the homeless on
Nov. 19 at the club's home in the 900 block of High Street. The
event has been held annually since 1989.
Photo by DAWSON MILLS
Norfolk Jaycees officers Susan Acken, left, Bill Shriver, Glenda
Cisler and Bob Wilhelm are among the group that collects food from
individual and corporate donors, sorts it and delivers it to 50
needy Norfolk families. The food is stored at the Foodbank of
Southeastern Virginia.
by CNB