Where Am I? At the Friendship Center, That's Where

Here are the nine students from the Where Am I program who helped out on Saturday.

We were pleased on Saturday, Sept. 2, to host a group of Williams College students with the Where Am I? local community orientation and service program.

Most were first-year students, with two sophomores leading the group. They came from such diverse places as Queens, N.Y.; Boston; Los Angeles; and Ethiopia.

After a hearing a brief description of what we do, the students took on a wide array of tasks. NBIAI Board of Directors members Sheila Bounds, who is volunteer coordinator; Fran Berasi; and Mark Rondeau each had tasks for the students.

 Here are the students working on repackaging cat and dog food. The pet food comes from the Berkshire Humane Society and from private donations.

The students bagged cat and dog food, and a group went out to Stop & Shop and bought more with money they were given; they repackaged diapers; one students did data entry; they put return stickers and stamps on envelopes for our upcoming letter fund-raising campaign; one student made copies of our fund-raising letter and fact sheet. To top it all off before they left, the students made the weekend cleaning the Friendship Center much easier by thoroughly sweeping the floor.

Though we have had the Where Am I? program visit in the past, I have a hard time remembering the name, at times calling it You Are Here! or Where Are We? At any rate, on a long walk on Monday in Williamstown, I discovered from a sign along Main Street that they are involved in the habitat restoration project near the old Spruces site. In fact, last week I saw a group of young people working there, and they were probably the same students we saw on Saturday. (See photos below).

Working with local students is one of the many enjoyable things about this work.

  Students in the foreground are re-packaging pet food while the students in the back are re-packaging diapers. We get our diapers from the Berkshire Diaper Project.

 One of the Williams students did data entry for us, entering information about our volunteers onto a spreadsheet. That's volunteer coordinator Sheila in the background updating the volunteer board.

Here's the habitat restoration project in Williamstown that the Where Am I? Williams students also worked on.

We Celebrate Versatile Volunteer Kevin Tyree

Here's a photo Kevin provided in documenting a trip back and forth to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts in Hatfield.

Since the February 2013, Kevin Tyree has been an invaluable volunteer with the Friendship Center Food Pantry. Over the years he has been very involved in food transportation, picking up a rented truck and driving either to the local depot in Pittsfield or directly to the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts in Hatfield, roughly a 100-mile round trip. Then after helping unloaded the truck he would return it to the rental agency.

For several years, he drove the truck on Tuesdays the great majority of the time. We could not have thrived as a food operation during this time without his help. He has ceased being involved in weekly food transportation, but fortunately he continues to help in other ways.

For instance, Kevin also has been a key presence during the annual Letter Carrier Food Drive during the second Saturday in May — not only helping on the Saturday itself but in setting up the sorting space downtown and in transporting the collected food over to the Friendship Center in stages.

 Here's photo I took of Kevin  a few years ago.

Kevin is a regular presence helping out at the food pantry during the morning and early afternoon session on Wednesday.. In the past he has helped in the evening at the Eagle Street Room with the setup and putting away of tables and cleanup. He has also over the years helped with various mechanical and technical aspects, such as when we changed and upgrades our door locks and putting new wheels on one of our hand carts. He's also taken photos of our activities from time to time.

Kevin is good with computers and often helps out during morning session when there’s a problem with the sign-in computer. In fact, just this past Saturday Kevin came down to pick up a start-up disk in an effort to get our new sign-in computer up and running properly.

Kevin is a cheerful and helpful presence, who cares very much about what we do and about the friends we serve. We greatly appreciate who he is and all he does.

Here's a photo of our celebration of the birthday of another stalwart volunteer, Lois Hescock. That's Kevin standing behind her in his cowboy hat. We have the best volunteers in the non-profit world.

~ Mark Rondeau