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A giving heart
By DONNA WINCHESTER, Times Staff Writer
ST. PETERSBURG -- They began arriving at the Salvation Army on Fourth Street S just after 4:30 on Friday afternoon. An elderly woman. A middle-aged couple. A father with two small children. They exchanged greetings and made small talk while their shadows lengthened in the late afternoon sun. Inside, five pairs of hands were putting finishing touches on 52 laundry baskets filled with oranges, sweet potatoes, stuffing mix, cranberry sauce and dinner rolls. A 10-pound frozen turkey rested at the bottom of each basket. A pumpkin pie and an aluminum roasting pan topped off each one. When everything was ready, one of the workers invited the others to join hands. "Let's bow our heads as we begin this precious season of giving," she said. "Amen, amen, amen," everyone responded. Few of the men, women and children who filed in when the doors opened at 5 realized the polite teenager with the gold-rimmed glasses who carried the food to their cars was their benefactor. They didn't know he had spent nearly a year performing 104 hours of community service so he could buy the food at a discount, or that he had rented a truck and driven to a food bank in Tampa earlier in the day to pick up the food. They didn't know he had applied for a $1,000 grant to cover his expenses, or that he had spent $83 of his own money on the laundry baskets and the roasting pans. It wasn't important to Tim Medeiros for them to know. The 16-year-old's gift to the needy this year, as it was last year and the year before that, is a payback for a Thanksgiving gift he received in 1995. That was the year Tim's father was dying of lung cancer. His mother had taken time off from work to care for him. The family's prospects for a Thanksgiving dinner were dismal until the Salvation Army stepped in at the request of Hospice of the Florida Suncoast. "They bought us the complete meal," said Debie Medeiros. "Then they turned around at Christmas and totally blew us away with everything from a tree to gifts to food. We were just amazed." The gesture made a big impression on Tim, who was 9 at the time. He vowed to return the favor some day and began watching for an opportunity. "About three years ago I noticed on the news that they said donations were low," he said. "I thought maybe I could buy some meals and donate them to the families." A friend told him about SHARE, a nonprofit organization that sells reduced-price food packages in return for community service (please see box). He decided to purchase 52 turkey dinners the following Thanksgiving for $15 and two volunteer hours each. He begged a gas station owner to give him a part-time job to cover his costs. He spent his Sunday afternoons shelving books at the St. Petersburg Public Library to complete the community service hours. Then he approached social services counselor Deborah Johnson and told her he wanted to distribute the food through the Salvation Army. Tim repeated the process the following year and did it again this year, with one difference: After the gas station's new owners laid him off and he couldn't find another job, he applied for a $1,000 Youth As Resources grant to cover his expenses. Linda Nagle, Florida director of SHARE, first encountered Tim's tenacity three years ago. "He came in with his own hard-earned money to purchase 52 packages to donate to the Salvation Army," she said. "It's not unusual to see young people involved in doing good things, but I think the degree of effort he had to put in to make it happen and the goal-setting that he did is just very commendable." Donald Wayne Jones, the Salvation Army's director of social services, said Tim's annual Thanksgiving gift goes a long way toward easing the burden of needy families at a time when the demand is greatest. Many people in the community who were living from paycheck to paycheck lost their jobs after Sept. 11 and have not been able to rebound, Jones said. Others, like Willie Morrell, can't work because of sickness or injury. Morrell, 59, who drives a bus for Pinellas County Transit Authority, was injured on the job in September. His wife, Mae, 48, is also out of work for health reasons. They thought they would have to cancel the Thanksgiving feast they had planned to prepare for Mrs. Morrell's mother, their son and their two grandchildren until they found out they could get a turkey with all the trimmings at the Salvation Army. "It fit right on in with having us be able to sit down and have a nice Thanksgiving dinner," Morrell said. "It's going to be real nice." It also gave him something to think about beyond the holiday. "I tell you one thing for sure," he said. "Since I've been in my situation and going around to all the helping organizations, I've observed a lot of things. If it weren't for these programs, I don't know how I would have made it. All of us are going to be down one time or another in our lives. I want to give something back, and I know I'm going to give something back, one way or another." Which coincides perfectly with Tim's vision, and provides him with all the thanks he needs. "You never know when or if you will ever need help," he wrote in an essay a couple of years ago. "What I do affects those I come in contact with, who go on to affect others and so on, like the ripples on a pond when a pebble is dropped in. "There is a saying: There but for the grace of God go I. I have been there, and with the grace of God, I will go on help others." 2001 accomplishmentsThe Salvation Army of South Pinellas began its work in St. Petersburg in 1912, the year the county was officially chartered. Incalculable lives have been touched since then. Here are some things the Salvation Army accomplished in 2001: -- It provided 40,651 hot meals at the local shelter. -- It prepared more than 13,300 meals for children in crisis. -- It offered safety and shelter at its emergency lodge to more than 12,000 people. -- It offered 5,800 neighborhood youths a safe place to spend their time. -- It made it possible for 1,449 children to find something extra under their Christmas trees. If you would like to find out how you can help the Salvation Army help others, call 550-8080 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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From the Times South Pinellas desks |
