Monday, April 28, 2008

Patrick Center volunteers help distribute bagged salads




Bagged lettuce or salad mix may not seem like a luxury, but to a senior citizen on a fixed income, it may as well be. For about a year now, the luxury item has been offered free once a week to seniors in the Kings Mountain area.

Thursdays are lettuce days at the Patrick Senior Center. You’ll find anywhere from 15 to 20 senior volunteers sorting the bags of lettuce and putting them in grocery bags for pick up or delivery. The program started when Terrie Lewis, program coordinator, received a call from an employee of the Dole Plant near Bessemer City, offering surplus bags of salad to the seniors.
“At first I was going by myself to get the lettuce on Thursdays,” Ms. Lewis said.

It would take her all morning to get the lettuce ready to distribute. Monty Thornburg, director, and other staff members also helped.

“When Lafayette Pearson found out that I was going by myself to get the lettuce, he asked if he could go,” Ms. Lewis said. “He also asked other people to help. Now they get everything ready so that I can go back and do other things. If it wasn’t for the volunteers, I couldn’t get my job done.”

Pearson, 76, said that he wanted to help, “because I know they need some help.”
“If you ever come around here and see what these girls do, you know they do a good job,” he said. “And I want to help them.”

After working all morning to separate and bag the salad, Pearson delivers it to 17 people.
“They love you for bringing the lettuce,” he said. “It really tickles them to death.”

Thornburg said the volunteers arrive at 8 a.m. every Thursday morning to help. After a cup of coffee, some go with Ms. Lewis to pick up the lettuce and the others stay behind to get everything ready.

Martha Harrelson, 74, spends her Thursday mornings bagging lettuce for three reasons.
“It’s helping somebody else out and that’s what we are supposed to do and it’s good to get out of the house and have something to do.”

Like Pearson, many of the volunteers take bags of lettuce to people who can’t come to the Patrick Center and get them.

Dora Bridges, 76, delivers lettuce to about 8 people.
“I’ve always liked helping people and I love doing it for them,” she said. “They appreciate it so much.”

Ms. Bridges and Ivory Nolen, 78, work together to coordinate all the volunteers who help on lettuce day.

“I enjoy volunteering and just being among my friends,” Ms. Nolen said. “We have a good crew who works together.”

When she delivers lettuce to the people on her list, “they are standing at the door waiting on me,” she said. “Everybody is tickled to death to get it.”

But the ones who receive the lettuce aren’t the only ones who benefit.

Roberta Brown, 78, doesn’t like lettuce, but she comes every Thursday to help with the lettuce distribution.
“I just do things to get away from the house,” she said. “It’s boring sitting at home.”

Free lettuce is available on most Thursdays to senior citizens in the Kings Mountain area. For more information, call the Patrick Center at 704-734-0447.

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