Volunteer Moments

By Elizabeth Buzzelli, Father Fred volunteer

Father Fred moments are known as little epiphanies; small, unexplainable events in the life of a Father Fred volunteer. Eventually, they happen to everyone who gives their time to The Father Fred Foundation, whether sorting donations, hanging clothes, stocking racks in the clothing department, filling bags with food in the pantry, greeting our clients, helping with immediate needs—all the ways volunteers give of themselves and their time. But, there are even more rewards.

For me, a writer, it was a moment a client made a request that sent me running to supply wonderful books. For others it is helping a young woman who was homeless, with small children, and now has a house but needs everything we can give to set it up. It can be helping a six-year old Mexican girl, translating for her mother and grandmother but taking the time to pick up a hand puppet from the bin and start a puppet conversation. These are special moments which remind volunteers why they give their time.

Volunteering at Father Fred is always more about getting back so much more than you give.

My moment came when I was stocking the book shelves in the store. Every time I fill the shelves, especially with children’s books, the books fly. Grandmothers take them for the children they have to raise due to a terrible family tragedy, mothers take them for kids who must read so many books a month for school, and, of course, there are the children who just love books. Adults will stand looking over the shelves, hunting for that one book that speaks to them—something that will take them to another world, one of the reasons we all read. As I stocked, a young man came up, looked over the books and asked if I had anything by Hemingway or Steinbeck. Being a writer and teacher, my heart beat fast—one of my own people. I ran to the back, went through the books, and found everything from Tolstoy to Kerouac, anything I knew would enlarge his world. When I took them to him he was amazed and accepted the books carefully, as if I were handing him riches. He looked over the stack, then back at me, amazement written on his face. He asked, “How can people ever give away books like these?” I had no answer, but will be eternally grateful to those who did.