New group offers helping hands

When it comes to charitable giving, writing a check, making a cash or credit card payment to a favorite cause tend to be the easy ways to satisfy a need.

The more difficult decision is the donation of time, a commodity there never seems to be enough of but always needed the most.

Volunteers for Medical Lake recently tried to organize those people who have time to spare and can help the residents of the West Plains in a myriad of ways. It operates with the help of social media and what appears to be a hearty number of helpers.

Volunteers for Medical Lake, "Is a group of people helping people," writes one of the organizers, Barb Losberg, on their Facebook page. "Food, a ride, run an errand, snow plow, etc. If we are not available to meet their needs we are connecting into resources that are already out there," she added.

Once the word started traveling along the social media road membership grew from zero to 80 in just three days.

And so does a seemingly endless need for help.

There are people who need a ride to the doctor or help around their home. "There are services but people do not know about them," Losberg said, adding they will try to help make those connections.

"Whether you have 30 minutes a month, or three hours a day, there is so much you can do to help our community," co-organizer Naomi Moody posted.

Things that most everyone who is not, or has never been in a situation of rudimentary need, can take for granted.

"I just met a gal who didn't even have a pan for her turkey," Losberg said. The group provided what that person needed to have a proper Thanksgiving.

While one challenge comes in trying to serve the needs of the community, equal, perhaps is getting the word out that there are a set of helping hands, legs or wheels to assist.

One reason is there are segments of the population in need that are not Facebook followers. "Older people are reading print and are not online," Losberg said. "There's a lot of those people out there right now."

Losberg, and her right-hand helper, Moody, were both reluctant to be cast into the spotlight. Organizers are also not making all posts public, but doing their best to simply make sure all needs are met.

"We had a family of four, handicapped, the sister had a stroke and mom went in for chemo," Losberg said. "They were overwhelmed; the next day we had a full meal for those people."

"Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner is huge for us," Losberg said. The group wanted to make sure any shut-ins have dinner.

Connecting people to the major needs, mainly food, is just one of many focuses for help. "We do not help them financially," Losberg said.

Cold weather came on so early and fast that it concerns Losberg, particularly because the true winter season has not yet begun.

If there seems to be any lament, other than not being able to help everyone who is in need, it might be in knowing how the group's name can be misconstrued and keep people from making the call.

The group should have been named Volunteers for the West Plains, Losberg wrote on Facebook. "What we didn't stop and think is Cheney is part of our community," as is Airway Heights.

All it takes is a phone call. "I want people to call me, I want people to know we're going to help them," Losberg said.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].