Volunteers give precious gift

#Middlebury #Volunteers

Middlebury Girl Scouts, left to right, Sarah LaBelle, Melanie Redline, Ella Palladino, and Anna Kwashnak build a dog house for Brass City Rescue Alliance. (Sarah Kwashnak photo)

By JANINE SULLIVAN-WILEY

What precious gift cannot be wrapped or tied with ribbon, stuffed into Santa’s sack or put under the tree? The gift of time. It can be time spent with family or friends. And it can be time spent helping one’s community, town, state or country. It is a precious, fleeting commodity.

Here in Middlebury, it includes time volunteers give through the fire department; boards, committees and commissions; Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts; and so many organizations that rely on volunteers for their leadership and the work they do. This includes the Middlebury Land Trust (MLT). MLT members spend countless hours monitoring and managing properties, considering new opportunities and now pursuing accreditation.

Where would our town be without its volunteer fire department? I live down the street from one of our firefighters, and I can attest to the way he will dash out on mere minutes’ notice to rush to a fire or accident.

Local Boy Scouts do projects all over town. The MLT has benefited from several Eagle Scout projects like those by Luis Gonzales and Jason Von Culin in developing new trails on the MLT property on Crest Road (Check out the new loop trail by Luis!). Michael Trager installed new wooden boardwalks approaching Larkin Pond, and Spencer Bigman installed them on the Foote Path.

Tommy Holmes improved the landscaping around the Fire House, Terrance Dumoulin restored the dam at Lake Elise; others refurbished benches and put up butterfly houses in the garden at the library, and others painted rooms used for education in the St. John of the Cross’ parish house. Those last two show how altruism runs in the family: they were done by the two brothers, Chris and Mike Capadonna. Boy Scouts help with Middlebury Day, Earth Day and other events in town.

Girl Scouts also are out there making things better. One, Sarah Kwashnak, developed a new nature trail in Bristol Park across from Memorial Middle School. Girl Scouts donate Caring Totes to the Harold Leever Cancer Center every year, and they also make sandwiches for the Greater Waterbury Interfaith Ministry, collect food items for the Middlebury Food Pantry, and contribute to the Brass City Rescue Alliance.

Churches in town are major places of volunteerism, and through their volunteers we have many delightful town events, including pancake breakfasts and chicken barbecue, blueberry, strawberry and apple events (hmm … it does seem as if church groups like food.) They host Santa, provide gifts for the needy, and support food banks and the soup kitchen in Waterbury. Volunteers also provide a gingerbread village that is a wonder to behold.

Clubs such as the Lions Club fight blindness, collect eyeglasses, and sponsor community events. Volunteers also coach youth sports.

All of this is possible because of “Type V” people, people who volunteer. They find meaning and value in the service of others. They’re busy, like all of us, but they say “yes.” They hold our communities together and make all of our lives better through their gift of time.

We thank them for their precious gift of time, and we hope you thank them, too.

If you haven’t been volunteering, perhaps it’s time you gave it a try. To change around an old anti-drug message, the bottom line might be “Just Say ‘Yes!’” when you have an opportunity to be a volunteer in some capacity. You – and our community – will be the richer for it.

Find information about the Middlebury Land Trust at middleburylandtrust.org. Contact this writer at jswspotlight@gmail.com.