Have you ever wanted to help the less fortunate, but are unsure where to begin? Two important community organizations locally are the Salvation Army and Angel Reach. Both organizations are located in Conroe, Texas.
Dr. Bobby Ezell, has volunteered at the Salvation Army for over 15 years, as a food coordinator, which means that he is responsible for gathering groceries from stores to help serve food to the homeless and hungry.
“When I retired I wanted to be a part of an organization that helped the homeless, and children of homeless families. To hopefully bring some joy through a meal when the kids are hungry,” he explained.
Ezell is also responsible for gathering neighbors and church friends to help serve the food to those in need, which usually are the homeless, hungry population.The biggest weekly concern for Ezell is having enough food to feed all who need it, and always needing volunteers to help serve the food.
”I learned as the coordinator I needed to give the volunteers the same job weekly so that everything ran efficiently,” Ezell explained.
Many of those homeless people he serves live in cars, or in the woods in Conroe. Ezell explains that for some, the interaction with the group is the only uplifting voice in their lives.
One thing that is important to the volunteer group is ”to greet the homeless with positive phrases, to make them feel welcome, and not embarrassed.”
Ezell also volunteers at Angel Reach, which is an organization for children and youth that have aged out of foster care and don’t have a support system.
“I enjoy volunteering to keep kids out of foster care who age out. They need someone to help provide them direction.” Angel Reach allows these young adults , age 18 and above, without a family or support system, to live in Angel Reach housing, to attend career classes to get a job, or attend college classes. Ezell answers phones and helps the youth with their studies, since he is a retired educator.
“I used my experience as a teacher and transferred that over to helping the young adults with their educational needs.”
He gained interest in the organization through a simple act, “I, along with a group of friends, began delivering food to Angel Reach on young adult training nights. This prompted me to want to do more at Angel Reach.”
Ezell has made it his goal to give positive reinforcement and praise to any young adult that enters Angel Reach, as he knows positivity will build self confidence, which most of these young adults are missing due to a rough childhood.
Both of these organizations always need volunteers year round, but, during the holiday season, volunteers are needed even more. Volunteers are also very important during extreme weather conditions, whether that is high temperatures, or low temperatures, the homeless and young adults are weakened during these times. Ezell hopes others are inspired by this article and become a volunteer. Volunteering is important to those less fortunate, and without volunteers many families and young adults would not be able to survive. Humankind is precious, and we all need to do our part to care for each other.
