Above and Beyond the Call of Duty
We are truly blessed here at the pantry with the world’s best volunteers. Recently, two volunteers, who had never worked together, got together for a cause they felt was important. Rosemary Haseltine had seen a local client come to the pantry many times on his bicycle to get food. He would hang bags of food precariously from his handlebars and ride off into the traffic out on the Cranberry Highway. Rosemary knew this was just an accident waiting to happen so she decided to do something about it.
Rosemary bought a double basket for the back of the client’s bike and brought it to the pantry for him. When the client arrived the next time, I asked Dave Schutt, a driver and volunteer, if he would be so kind as to attach it to the bike. Dave took a look and decided that it was going to take a few tools and some work to get the basket attached properly for the client. We took down the client’s name and address and phone number and Dave kindly volunteered to go to his house and fix it there for him. He told the client that he’d call and arrange a time that worked for both of them.
Well, Dave ended up making a few trips to the client’s house, and a few trips to the bike store just to find out that the baskets were too big and wouldn’t work on the bike. Rosemary and Dave met and talked and decided that they had to do something. They got together and met with the client and took the bike to Buzzards Bay Bike Shop where they were able to get baskets attached to the front as well as the back of the bike! The shop was wonderful to them and they invested their own money and time to get the bike in good shape for the client to ride it and do his errands. Now when he comes to the pantry, we load him up with quite a few bags in his baskets and he rides SAFELY out onto the highway!
We want to thank Rosemary Haseltine and Dave Schutt for their time, treasure and talent in making this client’s life a lot easier and safer. They truly went beyond volunteering by taking on this project and seeing it through to the end, despite all the obstacles. It’s people like this that make the pantry so special – we look out for our fellow man that is in need and we try to fill that need if we possibly can. Thanks to them and to all of our volunteers that show up in the heat and all kinds of weather and do what is needed to do in order to feed those in our community that require our help. You are all very special people!!