Wayland Angels Flying Wing-in-Wing
Volunteer network seeks to expand
by Elizabeth Eidlitz
February
17, 2008 — If, as the ancient poet Lucretius wrote, “we are each
of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by
embracing one
another,” then there are hundreds of flying angels in
neighboring Metrowest towns—Wayland, Sudbury, Northborough,
Medway and Concord/Carlisle.
Wayland Angels, the founding group, embrace the community: their
mission is to provide non-medical services through a volunteer
network when individuals and families facing a crisis or tragedy
need help.
The founding chapter began in February 2003, after Jean Seiden
and Pam Washek close friends and young mothers, diagnosed with
cancer within weeks of each other, were helped during treatments
and recovery from surgeries by many friends as well as family.
“After returning to health,” Washek explains, “we wanted to
create a network of volunteers who would help other families in
our community in the same way that we had been helped.”
Thus the Wayland Angel Food Network began by delivering random
acts of kindness, like leaving a warm meal on a recipient’s
table.
Five years later, renamed Wayland Angels, the group comprises
more than 300 volunteers. Retirees, teenagers, men as well as
mothers, offer expanded services: besides delivering meals and
driving to medical appointments, they run errands, shop for
groceries, drive children to scheduled activities, help with
homework and provide daily check-ins for recipients coping with
terminal illness, stroke, various cancers, a broken back, an
amputated leg, or any short-term disability.
“We’ll do anything that helps someone to keep the household
running,” says Maureen DeJong, Needs coordinator for Wayland
Angels.
“Unlike some volunteer opportunities that require a time
commitment of so many hours a week, the Angels allow everyone an
opportunity to be involved. Members, viewing current needs at
the on-line calendar, can choose a task convenient for them and
their individual schedules."
READ MORE...
Volunteer coordination, first done by email, is now handled
online using www.Lotsahelpinghands.com/
, a web-based volunteer management application. The specific
needs of every request for help are posted at this secure web
site; volunteers, notified by e-mail, log in to the site, sign
up for specific tasks. In just a couple of days, the Angels
network can fill several weeks of needs for a family without
picking up the telephone. Volunteers receive automatic
confirmations and reminders.
Kate Robinson, who worked closely with the Angels when they
served her close friend and neighbor, a young mother of six
dying of brain cancer, says,” The response to my email request
was overwhelming. Such an outpouring! Not just the meals, which
could last 2 days, that I brought to my neighbor three times a
week-- but flowers, CDs, hats, and letters of inspiration!”
After several months, Robinson joined the Wayland volunteers.
While wintering in Florida she acts as an independent Angel
driving and cooking for a widow who lives in her condo complex.
Juli Ryan, a 17-year-old Teen Angel, who has cooked and
delivered meals since she was 15, says, “Volunteering is always
something I've just wanted to do. The Wayland Angels is great
because it connects people who want to help with people who need
help.
“Even if the difference you make is small, it is a difference,
and that is important. Doing something to help someone else is a
refreshing change from the norm of our self-oriented lifestyle
at school, and it’s more rewarding and more fun than homework.”
Karen Kolarik of Natick, liaison between her Wayland friend
Nancy Rousseau who had pancreatic cancer, and the Wayland
Angels, who provided meals, a Christmas tree, and a corner store
pizza fund, calls the volunteer group” tireless and incredible.
They give and give and give and ask nothing in return.”
Washek, envisioning Angels Across Massachusetts and eventually,
Angels Across America, is posting a "Getting Started" manual
online at www.helping-angels.org.
Information sessions are also being conducted to help get
interested communities started.
Hopkinton residents wishing to become an Angel can visit the
website or email
mail@waylandangels.org
