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Saturday, September 27, 2008
Community volunteers’ impact felt in every party
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
People line up outside the Norcross Cooperative Ministry before the doors open on the days it serves the public. Their needs vary — food, money for utility bills or the rent, and jobs. It’s a scene repeated at Gwinnett’s other cooperative ministries, located in Lilburn, Duluth, Lawrenceville, South Gwinnett and Northeast Gwinnett.
And given our sour economic state, there’s an uptick in clients.
“We’re seeing about 900 to 1,000 families a month,” said Leslie Buchanan, job services coordinator at the Norcross co-op.
It’s volunteers and staff members such as Buchanan who make nonprofits tick. The community organizers. The civic-minded. The volunteers and do-gooders. All represent duty and patriotism, the so-called American tradition.
In the current mad race for the White House, though, their sacrifice has been ridiculed, ruled inconsequential in the scheme of life, even less so in the governance of a gigantic government.
Don’t tell that to Shirley Cabe, executive director of the Norcross co-op, which just turned 20 years old. A Norcross native, she’s a founding member of the agency.
I always expect to hear from Cabe during the holidays, when demand dwarfs donations. She usually asks me to help spread the word:
“Christmas gifts and canned goods are needed. Please donate.”
If anybody knows what community means, it’s people like Cabe. They know people of all walks — what’s on their minds and in their hearts and souls.
For them, it’s not about polls. It’s about networking, strategizing, appealing to all aspects and agendas of the community to help the downtrodden.
To make a difference.
What better way to learn a community, city, state or nation than through a grassroots prism? What better way to prepare yourself to deal with all stripes of people, of different incomes, experiences, and perspectives?
Cabe wasn’t in the office when I called a few days ago. Unusual.
“She actually took a vacation,” the receptionist told me.
So I talked to Buchanan, the job services director. She became a volunteer seven years ago, then eventually joined the staff. Despite the job title, she still puts in volunteer hours at the agency on Mitchell Street.
“There is a need in the community,” she told me.
What Gwinnett residents such as Buchanan and Cabe contribute in the form of community service extends beyond party affiliation.
Feeding the hungry, finding jobs for the unemployed and helping a family keep shelter speaks volumes. You may not like the purpose they serve, but the nobility of such service requires no defense.
And it definitely shouldn’t be mocked.
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