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Published Monday, July 21, 2008 in Local

Rays of blond sunshine help greet Meals on Wheels clients

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Times-Herald

Meals on Wheels clients on Cynthia Curtis' route get more than a hot meal and conversation every other Friday.

They get rambunctious rays of blond sunshine.

Curtis doesn't work alone. Her sons Kyle, 4, and Seth, 2, make the rounds with her.

The Curtises have been volunteering with Meals on Wheels since last fall. They run a seven-client route the first and third Fridays of the month.

Curtis came to Meals on Wheels because "what I was looking for was a volunteer opportunity where I could take them with me."

She's always been involved in service organizations, she said. She's volunteered with the Salvation Army, Red Cross and women's shelters.

But after she had her sons, "I wanted them to come with me, because I felt like it was important for them to see me serving the people, and also help out themselves," Curtis said.

She wasn't having much luck finding a volunteer opportunity that she could take the boys to, until she was talking to a member of her church, who volunteers with Meals on Wheels in Fayette County.

"I got to thinking -- it's in my own van," Curtis said. So she called to see if the kids would be all right.

She contacted Meals on Wheels Volunteer Coordinator Sharon Bailey, and was told the children would be welcome.

"The clients, a lot of times, like to see the little kids," Curtis said. "They're lonely or they don't have grandchildren or their grandchildren don't live around," she said.

The boys help mom count out the dinner plates, fruit and cookies at the Piedmont Newnan Hospital cafeteria, and help carry things. "We have to make sure we have the right number of meals, the right numbers of drinks. It's a little opportunity for some education with them," Curtis said.

They also get the honor of knocking on the door and saying "Meals on Wheels," which they love.

Almost as much as they love the candy. One particular man on their route always has a Dixie Cup of candy waiting for each boy, Curtis said. Another woman keeps a stash of toys under her entertainment center. The boys know exactly where to go when they get there.

Both sets of the boys' grandparents live in other states so "they are like adopted grandparents," Curtis said of the various clients on her route.

"We've gotten to know them personally, and they dote on the boys," she said.

"It's been really rewarding, because I see them understand that we're helping other people, and that we're taking our time to do that, and that's important," she said.

If her husband's schedule permits it, he'll come along on the route, as well.

"It's just really something real easy for us to do together," Curtis said.

Curtis is pregnant with her third child, so she'll have to take a few weeks off, but plans to get back into volunteering just as soon as possible -- this time with three children. She figures an infant in a carrier shouldn't be a problem at all.

When she started her route, Seth was just a year old and "it was more difficult then, because he would fall asleep and I didn't want to get him out of the van or whatever," she said. "Now he enjoys actually helping.

"That's been fun too -- before, he didn't really have any conception of what we were doing. Now he wants to be a big helper."

Curtis says that volunteering for Meals on Wheels is a great opportunity for moms with small children. She's president of the Moms Club of Sharpsburg and "I'm always recommending to them that they get out and help. They need your help," Curtis said.

"The clients are so appreciative and they're nice and sweet and they do like seeing them," she said. "This is perfect."

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