Volunteer spirit abounds

The door to the little house on West Broadway Avenue opens just a crack, to reveal pitch darkness in stark contrast to the blinding white snow outside. A young woman in stocking feet smiles shyly at John Jones as he hands her a box of groceries.

It’s Christmas Eve and Jones is delivering food on behalf of Off-Broadway Family Outreach and Lighthouse of Hope to neighbors who are snowbound in West Central. The nonprofit usually hands out food donations every Monday on the corner of Nettleton and West Broadway. Finding the usual recipients snowbound, Jones and Marcel Smith, the house mother at Lighthouse of Hope, decided to take the food directly to the needy.

“Do you have any other immediate needs?” Jones asks the young woman, before offering a prayer for her brother who’s in jail.

Then he gets back into his pickup truck and heads toward Truth Ministries on East Sprague, a handful of frozen turkeys and hams rolling around in the pickup’s bed.

At Truth Ministries, between 30 and 40 homeless are expected for Christmas Eve dinner later, but the most urgent matter this morning is clearing snow off the leaking roof.

Scott Stanger, a shelter resident, is organizing a couple of homeless volunteers to do the roof clearing. Soon, a stepladder is pitched and volunteer Brad Vrieling crawls up on the roof.

“We want to be part of the solution,” Vrieling said. “It’s easy, in an area like this, for us homeless to become an eyesore what with beer cans and trash and all that. So we decided we want to help the community.”

Marty McKinney, the director of Truth Ministries, is getting shelter residents ready to go out and check on snowbound neighbors, helping them dig out and getting cars unstuck.

“So far, we just did the street right here, but we’ll do more,” Vrieling said, explaining how they’d knocked on doors and checked on people. Vrieling lived at Truth Ministries for a while last year, battling drug addiction. Now he works the “fire watch” – the all-night shift – twice a week.

“We get calls from the hospitals if they have someone who needs a bed, that kind of thing,” Vrieling said. “And no one gets a paycheck here – it does make you feel good, that much I can tell you.” There are 43 bunk beds at Truth Ministries.

McKinney would like to do a lot more outreach involving residents at the shelter.

“For now, we are just gathering up stuff and in the new year we really want to get going,” McKinney said. In the kitchen, McKinney’s sister, Linda Alderman, is getting ready to cook 36 pounds of turkey and 20 pounds of ham.

“I think we’ll be in good shape tonight,” she said, rinsing a turkey under the faucet. “My husband comes down here, too, to help out. This is the second time we are here on Christmas Eve – but it’s the first time I’ve been tangled into doing all the cooking.”

As the snowstorms kept coming over Christmas, lots of people across the Inland Northwest were helping each other out.

Propane dealer’s gift

Jerry Tilla, a disabled Vietnam veteran, found himself at the receiving end of a wonderful gift on Dec. 23.

“I get my propane fuel at Ferrellgas on Broadway,” Tilla said. “I live in a fifth-wheel trailer at University Mobile Home Court.”

He’d stop by frequently because all he had was a couple of seven-gallon tanks – he couldn’t afford a bigger one.

Employees at Ferrellgas noticed and they all pitched in to get him a full 25-gallon propane tank.

“They called me to say I had a tank waiting, and I get over there and there’s this 25-gallon tank with a bow on and Christmas goodies and all that,” Tilla said. “On the way over I thought, wait a minute, I didn’t drop off a tank?”

Tilla thought they had the wrong person.

“I was dumbfounded. They all gave it to me as a Christmas present,” Tilla said. “I know it was a sacrifice for them.”

Kim Bryan, a customer service representative at Ferrellgas, said they’d gotten to know Tilla over the years.

“He is just a wonderful man and we decided to do that for him,” Bryan said. “We always have to get our ‘Jerry-hug’ from him when he comes in. He was crying, he was so happy. And for us it felt so good to do that.”

One-man shovel patrol

Lots of neighbors shoveled and snow-blowed their ways into neighbors’ hearts.

One shovel wizard is John Skelton, 82, on Northwest Boulevard in Spokane.

“I’m 69 and he calls me young,” said Curtis Bagley, who’s been housebound with a broken leg and a broken arm. “I was trying to fix a closet, that’s how I got hurt.”

Now Skelton, who lives nearby, clears Bagley’s sidewalk and driveway.

“I used to do it for my neighbors and I know what a big job it is being out there in the snow and cold all day,” Bagley said. “He just showed up and started doing it. It drives me nuts sitting here watching other people do my work, but I’ll pay it back next year if I can.”

Skelton said he’s been helping around the neighborhood and he really doesn’t mind, as long as he can go at his own pace.

“I do four houses besides mine; how long it takes depends on how much snow we got – it’s easily a couple of hours,” Skelton said. “I wore one snow blower out last year and I went and got a new one – I was hoping for snow so I could try it out, but not like this. I guess you got to be careful what you wish for.”

Neighbors help elderly

On Olive Lane in Liberty Lake, Eugene LaLiberte, 90, is in awe of his neighbors Maurie Horlen, Lana Myers, Roy Mackey and Dan Zyph.

“My wife is disabled and I’m 90 years old, so it’s a bit hard right now,” he said. “They just show up and get it done, we are so happy about that.”

His snow blower broke down last year, but he’s getting it fixed.

“I told them they can all use it as much as they want to, when I get it back,” LaLiberte said, laughing. “These are such great people. The snow just keeps coming down and they keep showing up, getting it cleared before we even think about it.”

Healing and giving

For some, helping out during the holiday season had an especially deep meaning.

Chris Waddell was diagnosed with stomach cancer this summer, and he began radiation and chemo treatments at Kootenai Cancer Center in August.

“I was fine at first, I thought I’d get over the needles, but I still hate them,” Waddell said. “I wouldn’t wish what I went through on my worst enemy.”

After treatment and surgery, Waddell’s cancer was gone and he’s now ready to return to work as a financial planner.

“I wouldn’t have made it without my wife and my faith in God,” Waddell said about his cancer survival.

He decided he wanted to do something special for people who were having chemo on Christmas Eve. Waddell’s wife, Kristin, came up with the idea of making fleece blankets.

“She got people from church together, went to the fabric store and then we just went at it,” Waddell said.

On Christmas Eve, with their three little kids in tow, the couple delivered 25 cozy blankets to the patients at Kootenai Cancer Center.

“We wanted to make sure our kids knew that Christmas is not just about getting but giving; they saw us give,” said Waddell, who included an inspiring poem with each blanket. “Some of the people who were there on Christmas have been in treatment for years. They are the strong ones.”

Waddell said surviving cancer has had a huge impact on his life and outlook on things, and so did donating the blankets.

“Chris’ giving was so healing for him,” said Kristine Waddell, “that’s a big part of this story.”

The family is looking forward to the new year and to Chris Waddell’s return to work.

“Christmas has been pretty emotional this year,” Waddell said. “I guess I just wanted to find a little way to help those who are going through what I went through.”