Volunteer Stories
We often hear stories about how volunteers’ lives are impacted as they serve at The Bowery Mission and Kids With A Promise. We are also blessed by volunteers whose special service is making a difference in the lives of homeless men and women and at-risk youth in New York City. Their stories are a testimony to life-changing difference that on an individual or group can make. Our hope is that their uplifting stories, you encourage and inspire you.
Pauline Bethel - Making Meals Possible
Every year, hundreds of thousands of meals are served at the Bowery Mission as part of our compassionate care to the homeless community and in support of our residential program of recovery for 80 men. We cook meals three times a day for our guests, causing considerable wear and tear in the kitchen over time. Recently, the stoves and ovens and other equipment had begun to succumb to this constant use and were not functioning up to par.
Pauline Bethel, a volunteer from Arkansas, who recently served at the Mission saw the need and decided to do something about it. She went home and raised $35,000 to buy new stoves, ovens, broilers, an ice maker, and more for the Mission. The new equipment was installed this past summer. We also put in a new ceiling and electrical work.
Thanks to Pauline’s hard work that resulted in a generous donation, the chefs and volunteers in the kitchen have found their jobs to be much easier. “The new equipment has been a real blessing,” said Clyde Edey, one of the chefs at The Bowery Mission. “It’s the type of equipment a trained chef would like in his kitchen. Without it I don’t know what would have happened, because before the oven would work one day and not the next. Now the ovens are working perfectly. We cook in such big quantities and the stoves are fantastic.”