OKEMOS, Mich. — Last weekend, just days before Thanksgiving, kindness gathered quietly inside the back storeroom of Tom’s Food Center in Okemos.
That is where East Lansing’s chapters of Zonta International and Kiwanis Club were teaming up, side by side, packing Thanksgiving baskets for families served by Haven House.
Dawn Pysarchik with the East Lansing Zonta Club helped to organize the event.
“Of 1200 clubs worldwide. We have many, many clubs in Michigan. We are an advocacy and service group that empowers women and families. And so, we have a number of different projects. This being one of them."
For more than three decades Dawn and her fellow Zonta members have been filling boxes with the things so many families need… but sometimes cannot afford.
This year, each box ends up at Haven House… a place that guides parents and children through the hardest chapters of homelessness.
“We got the request from Zonta, and we are very happy to help, because we are a community minded organization as well, and we do a lot of things in the community," says Bob Nelson with Kiwani's Club of East Lansing.
And there is no shortage of help.
Volunteers from both clubs lined up shoulder to shoulder… turning the back storeroom into an assembly line of generosity.
For Tom’s Food Center, this tradition is more than a partnership. It has become part of the store’s heart.
“It's always heartwarming," says Tom Antaya owner of Tom's Food Center Okemos. We work with different groups here. Mark has done a great job with the hassle food bank. If you go to the front of the store, you'll see all these baskets. They tell him what they need, and then Mark puts together a whole bunch of paper bags with the items in it with the price, and then people purchase them and they donate them to has a food bank that's great and important.”
And for volunteer Angela Brown, the reason she shows up every year is simple.
“There’s so many people that aren’t able to be certain that they’re going to dinner… and Zonta has taken this concern on as part of our mission. The satisfaction it brings to our club that we’re giving back. I like helping people and in this small way that brings joy, that brings me joy.”
Once the boxes are packed… they roll out to cars waiting to deliver them to Haven House families.
A holiday meal… and a message. Someone sees them. Someone cares.
“They're good neighbors because they're willing to take the time and effort to help others.”
On a holiday built around gratitude… these volunteers brought theirs early.
One box at a time.
One act of kindness at a time.
And that is why the East Lansing Zonta Club and the East Lansing Kiwanis Club are this week’s Good Neighbors.
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