A tribute to volunteers

I have read that the people most likely to give the most are those that have the least. Maybe it is because they know what it is like to need. They know how it feels to want and how it feels when someone cares. I met just such a volunteer recently. She is an African American woman in her 50s who was first diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 29. That was the first of three (yes THREE) rounds of breast cancer.

The day I met her, we were volunteering at a church where people in the community could get food- a whole grocery cart full-, a flu shot, and a mammogram all at the same location on the same day. The food was the biggest draw with over 230 recipients, incluidng most of the volunteers (yes, people who volunteer often have major needs themselves).

The woman I mentioned had not eaten all day. She had been too busy helping a sister navigate her second breast cancer diagnosis. The sister had been devastated and needed the support of someone who had been there.

All through the evening, this volunteer ran back and forth between the registration table and the mammogram truck, helping women take advantage of the free mammograms.

Volunteers usually do the work because they care deeply. They have often experienced hardship. They may be suffering just as much as the people they serve. It is always a humbling experience work with such amazing people.