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Thursday, Jun 5, 2003 |
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Posted on June 05, 2003 Sanford honors Mobile Meals volunteer
John Coleman began volunteering with Mobile Meals on March 1, 1987. He's still devoting five hours a day, five days a week to the ministry to homebound people. That means, according to Holly Boyce of Mobile Meals, that he's volunteered nearly 16,500 hours for the nonprofit agency. He also is an original member of the all-volunteer Spartanburg Community Band, the Dixieland group Windjammers, and the Foothills Oompah Band. The Windjammers sometimes accept donations for their performances and give the money to Mobile Meals. The oompah band is the only one that plays for pay. Gov. Mark Sanford will present Coleman the 2003 Community Leader Volunteer Award this morning at the Statehouse. It's one of seven volunteer awards the governor presents and the one that recognizes "broad and exceptional leadership to causes, programs and for projects that address human needs." Coleman, 81, said when he retired from Milliken & Co. at age 65, "I knew I had to do something or I would die of boredom and my wife would die sooner from having me around." Because he and Mobile Meals Executive Director Jayne McQueen sang together in the choir at First Presbyterian Church of Spartanburg, he knew about Mobile Meals. "I started volunteering the day after I retired and I never quit," he said. Coleman used his computer expertise to enter all Mobile Meals routes into computers. "If it weren't for John, we might still be using index cards," McQueen said. Coleman said Mobile Meals has gone from two computers in 1987 to nine, and work is being done to network the computers for more efficiency. For now, Coleman must back up each computer with floppy disks daily. To keep the 1,600 volunteers safely delivering lunches to the homebound, Coleman has created 125 individual direction routes. He makes any necessary changes and prints the routes before meals can be delivered. He also generates monthly expense reports, statistics, meal cost figures and other data for annual budgets. "Daily route sheets are the primary source of communication and a lifeline between recipients, volunteers and paid staff," Boyce said. Coleman and his wife of 59 years, Rosemary, deliver a route on Fridays. And he remains active in fund-raisers for Mobile Meals. Holt Andrews, music director at First Presbyterian, said Coleman is a longtime member of the church's chancel choir. In a letter supporting Coleman's nomination for the award, Andrews wrote, "I think John is a perfect candidate for this kind of award, not only because of his many and varied activities, but because he engages in them without a thought about his personal reward or recognition." "He's so open-minded to new people of all ages, so hip," Boyce said. "He shares his gifts with others and he's always smiling." Debra G. Lester can be reached at 562-7264, or debra.lester@shj.com. |
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