Meet Hopelink Volunteer Carolyn Rose

Megan Sheridan, food bank coordinator at Hopelink nominated one of her most loyal volunteers,  Carolyn Rose. Sheridan organizes the planning and daily operations of the food bank as well as supervises all of the food bank volunteers.  

Sheridan credits Rose with doing "behind-the-scenes type work for many hours each week."

Sheridan said, "We have come to rely on her excellent organizational skills and attention to detail as well as her concern for the welfare of our food bank recipients.  She puts a lot of care into her work.”

For 40 years, Hopelink has taken under their wings homeless individuals, low income families, kids, the elderly and people who are physically challenged.  Hopelink promotes self-sufficiency for all of their clients and comes to the aid of many people who struggle for the most basic of life’s necessities.  

Hopelink changes lives by providing food, housing (emergency shelter and transitional housing), family development programs (employment skills development), adult education (classes in reading, computer technology and managing finances), transportation, energy bill assistance and emergency financial assistance to many people in need.

Patch: How long have you been volunteering with this organization?

Carolyn:  Since November 2009.

Patch: How did you hear about Hopelink?

Carolyn:  I live in Shoreline and frequent several of the businesses in the Aurora Square Shopping Center.  I noticed the Hopelink storefront but didn't know what it was about. After retiring, I wanted to volunteer in my local community and when the library didn't have any volunteer openings, I looked up Hopelink on the Internet to find out what they were about. After attending an orientation meeting I thought there might be something I could volunteer to do at this Shoreline location.  The volunteer coordinator asked me to come in to "sort food".

Patch: What do you do at Hopelink?

Carolyn:  My job at Hopelink is "the person in the back room".  We get food donations from various sources and I sort those donations by type (such as canned vegetables, fruit, canned meat/fish, rice, pasta etc) into crates the contents of which are distributed at the food banks.  Part of the sorting process involves finding the Best By Date and/or expiration dates to be sure the specific donation is within the prescribed guidelines for distribution. 

We get our big delivery on Monday and I am there to help get all types of fresh produce into the cooler, and frozen goods into the freezer.  Onions, potatoes, carrots, broccoli etc come in 50 lb bags/boxes and help repackage these into crates so they can be easily distributed at food bank. I am also one of several people who put together Emergency Bags which are for people who need immediate help when there is no food bank scheduled.

Patch: Where do you volunteer?

Carolyn:  I volunteer at the Shoreline location usually putting in a minimum of 10 hours a week. 

Patch: Why do you spend your time volunteering?  You are not getting paid for your time, what inspires you to make this commitment to Hopelink? 

Carolyn:  I do like volunteering at Hopelink.  There are so many great people working and volunteering here and most have been here for years, many before Hopelink was even at this location.  In just the short time that I've been here I've seen the need for all the services Hopelink offers grow by leaps and bounds especially in the need for food. 

Since it is summer now, kids no longer get lunch through special programs at school so for two months the volunteers also put together School Lunch bags which give kids the makings for breakfast and lunch. 

Patch: Share something unique about yourself.

Carolyn:  I worked in Commercial Insurance for a Nationwide Insurance Company for 41 years, the last 10 years of which I was the nationwide underwriter for a group program providing property, liability and auto coverage for rural and volunteer fire districts.  

I do love working in my yard.  My back yard is a pesticide free environment and a bird sanctuary of sorts so the weeds grow in abundance if you don't stay on top of them.  It is very rewarding to work in the garden.  I also love books (hardbacks) and read a lot.  I like true stories and most anything involving history. 

I'm also a genealogist of sorts and started collecting information on family when I was in grade school and just never stopped.  I have done family histories on each of my parents and each of my ex-husbands parent’s families and have put together books on each.  I was able to trace back to the late 1700's and early 1800's on most of the families. I have entered all the information on Ancestry.com - that's almost 1150 people, 250 pictures (the earliest dating back to about 1875) and 39 stories.

Patch:  Anything else you want to tell us about your volunteer work at Hopelink?

Carolyn:  I'm really enjoying my time at Hopelink and hope to continue volunteering for many, many years.

To learn more about Hopelink and special summer events please visit here.

Please see the video about Hopelink.