Presentation Speech for Barb Hansen, Glide First Citizen 2019
Presented by Nancy Kreger, Glide First Citizen 2008

I want to offer some advice to the young people here tonight. You’re graduating seniors, so lots of people are going to want to give you advice. Get used to it.   Here’s mine:  If you ever are feeling lonely, isolated, not very brave –  maybe you’ve moved to a new town and don’t know anybody,  or your friends have moved away or drifted apart. Go someplace where people are coming together  to do something for others, and offer to help.
     A school, a hospital, a food pantry,
     a group knitting hats for cancer patients,
     a group fund-raising for wells in Africa.
Anything – whatever touches your heart.  The other volunteers you will meet there are the most amazing, kind, generous people –  like the people in this room, and like the people I’m about to introduce to you.  They will change your life.

I met our first honoree in 2009, when she was bringing Christmas gifts for a child whose tag had been on the Boy Scouts’ giving tree. The next month she showed up at the food pantry to help, and we’ve been working side by side ever since. Now, 9 years later, she is second in charge and knows the pantry operation inside and out. One of her main roles is taking clients through the pantry, since Helping Hands is a shopping-style pantry. One on one, she helps them select food, offers cooking advice, and answers their questions.  She also orders and stocks food, makes reports, and supervises other volunteers. She works about 7 hours most Wednesdays, except the first week of the month when the pantry is open in the evening and she works more like 11 hours.  Once a month there’s a work day when the pallets of food from UCAN are shelved, and she works 4 or 5 hours. It adds up to about 400 hours a year. The pantry serves 3 to 400 individuals in our community every month – those are people who have food on the table
because of her dedication and generosity.

She also helps with the Boy Scouts’ holiday program every year.  There are always a dozen or more gift tags left on the tree or not brought back. She goes shopping, fighting the holiday crowds to make sure every kid on the list has new gifts to open on Christmas day. To make room for the hundreds of gifts, she also helps clear out the pantry– that’s where the parents pick them up – then puts everything back afterwards. She’s the kind of person who sees what needs to be done and just steps up and does it. The same thing happens during the letter carrier food drive every year. She’s worked on that too for 8 years now. Receiving the donations, sorting and packing them, then putting everything away in the pantry after the event is over. She also works the carnival booths when not enough volunteers show up. She’s flexible and a self-starter – willing to do whatever it takes to make the event successful.

When I add up all the hours she has given over the last 9 years, it’s approaching 4000.  But the numbers and the list of tasks don’t show the whole picture. They don’t show you what a warm heart this woman has. On a regular basis she goes way beyond what is expected, mostly behind the scenes.

The pantry gives out much more than groceries and clothing.  People come with all their human needs and suffering: they’ve lost a job, they’re grieving a loved one, they just received a life-altering diagnosis. As this woman spends time with them one-on-one, she gives them her compassion and caring.
She always has time to listen, with a friendly ear, a warm hug, a positive attitude, and the openness to share her own experiences.

 Not long ago she spent an hour talking with a terrified woman who had just learned she has breast cancer –  listening, calming her, and giving her a sense of hope. That’s the bigger picture I want you to see of who this woman is and what she does – she gives her compassion and caring over and over. She is such an asset to our community. I am so grateful to know her, and so proud to introduce you to her.

Please join me in thanking and honoring  Barb Hansen, Glide First Citizen 2019.

Presentation Speech for Jay Hansen, Glide First Citizen 2019
Presented by Nancy Kreger, Glide First Citizen 2008

Our second honoree is a Douglas County native who spent chunks of his life elsewhere, but has returned with his wife in his retirement, and we are so lucky that he did. Truly a behind-the-scenes person, he has been working in the pantry warehouse since 2010. He puts out fresh produce, keeps the storeroom stocked, intakes food donations and logs them. On those once-a-month stocking days, he’s there to unload and shelve the food. The pantry handles about 10,000 pounds of food each month, so this behind-the-scenes work in the warehouse is essential for feeding the pantry’s families.

He also helps with all phases of the wood program – cutting, bucking, hauling, stacking, and giving the wood out. He’s a self-starter and a take-charge kind of guy. He makes himself available on short notice, which is great when suddenly there’s a tree down in someone’s yard that can be salvaged for the pantry. When wood storage sheds were being built, he spent a full week milling logs into two-by-fours and two-by-sixes. He made all the framing lumber for the storage – a lot of lumber because the storage holds 28 cords of firewood.

He’s also one of the essential behind-the-scene guys for the Boy Scouts holiday food program. He helps haul and shelve the extra donated food which will be given out throughout the winter, sometimes up to 9000 pounds of food. For several years he has driven the trailer of food and gifts up to Diamond Lake for the 30 families up there, a trip that’s not easy at the end of December. He also makes himself available for many last minute chores, like hauling boxes or tables. He’s one of those guys that doesn’t get the limelight, but when you pay attention, he’s everywhere, doing anything and everything.

It’s the same way during the letter carrier food drive. He spends the entire day handling the food – receiving it, weighing it, boxing it, hauling it, unloading it, and shelving it. And the entire time, he is friendly, courteous, happy and smiling. During a rare slow period, he’ll pull out his guitar and play and sing. He makes it a great day! He has also been president of the Bar L Ranch Road District since 2014. That’s a difficult road, and without the district board’s constant attention to grading, tree removal, drainage, and other maintenance, it would be unsafe for residents and visitors. He runs meetings, helps manage the funds, and makes sure issues get addressed. As a former lineman in Alaska, he often does the work and clean-up himself rather than call and wait for a tree company. That’s the kind of person he is, totally giving of his time and energy as a neighbor and a friend.

He probably spends over 60 hours a year on the road district. Add to that 450 hours a year at the pantry, and a couple dozen more on the other food projects, and pretty soon you’re up to 4,500 hours he has devoted to this community over the last nine years. And those are just the hours we can identify and count.

But just like with Barb, the hours and list of tasks don’t begin to tell the story of what this person does for our community. He is one of those guys you can always go to for help and he will be there. His compassion and caring for people is evident, and he treats everyone with such respect. He is a soft, gentle soul, always even-tempered and calm. When things get crazy in the pantry, he can calm us down.

Let me tell you just one example of the kind of person he is. Kids from the special education class at the high school come over to help in the warehouse. They do simple but essential jobs like rebagging large packages of dog food or power bars into individual units. With his calm and easy nature, he is great with these kids. He always makes sure they leave with a small treat – and more important, they also leave feeling good about themselves. They understand that they are doing work that matters, work that helps other people. That understanding wouldn’t happen if you didn’t have special people in the warehouse. This calm, smiling, behind-the-scenes man can establish connections with these kids and help them to grow.

That’s just one example of how he touches lives in this community. I am so grateful to know and work with him. Please join me in thanking and honoring Jay Hansen, Glide First Citizen 2019.