Join Pat & Provide #MoreThanMeals
May 15, 2023
Dear Friend,
This donation is made in memory of my grandmother, Frances H. Coleman.
She volunteered with Meals on Wheels of Greenville soon after the organization
was founded. As a child I was blessed to go on routes with her. Spending that
time with her had a profound impact on my life. —Pat Boutwell
Meals on Wheels of Greenville volunteer, Pat Boutwell, had known about the services we provide for the homebound well before she ever started donating both her time and charitable dollars, and she has her grandmother, Frances H. Coleman, to thank for that. “She had a heart of giving,” said Pat. “She raised my mother as a single parent after losing my grandfather in WWII. She never remarried and spent the rest of her life caring for my mother and helping people.”
To be closer to her family, Frances moved to Greenville in 1968, the same year our organization was founded, and hit the ground running looking for volunteer opportunities in the community. “She became a delivery volunteer, and when my sister and I were little, she would take us with her on routes,” said Pat. “I appreciate her having done that with us at such a young age, because it allowed us to see the world around us, right in our own community, that we may not have been exposed to otherwise.”
Even having been just a child at the time, Pat recalls much from those early days delivering with her grandmother: the faces of clients they delivered to; the living conditions that were so different from her own; and watching her grandmother sit with clients in their homes and engage with them. “It had a big impact on me, watching my grandmother get to know her clients,” said Pat. “Relationships are important; we can’t do this life by ourselves, and I think we have a purpose to help one another and lift each other up when we can.
Pat initially came to us as a member of her company’s corporate route partnership back in 1999, looking to follow in her grandmother’s footsteps by giving her time to help the homebound. Since retiring in 2021, Pat has joined the ranks of our substitute delivery volunteers, picking up routes on a week-by-week basis depending on her schedule. “I try to do different routes to meet new people and I so enjoy coming across clients who I just connect with,” said Pat. “They tell you about their children, you share your plans for the day…next thing you know, you’re actively looking to see if their route is available so you can see them the next time you deliver.”
Pat gives credit to her grandmother for instilling the importance of helping those in need and how you get back what you put in. Those closest to Pat will be the first to tell you whenever they see her with an extra pep in her step, they know she’s just delivered for Meals on Wheels. Thank you, Pat, for your amazing generosity and dedication to our mission. And thank you, Frances, for creating a legacy of service that lives on through your loved ones.
Will you consider joining volunteers, like Pat, by making a donation in support of our nearly 1,500 homebound clients who rely on us for daily nutrition, personal connection, and independence? You can help ensure they continue to receive #MoreThanMeals every day? Make a donation: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/myiwvasomowog/
