OCTOBER 22, 2009 ISSUE
Meeting a Need
Live United Volunteer Spotlight—Bill Parker
Editor’s Note: High Country Press is supporting the High Country United Way’s Live United campaign by spotlighting volunteers in our community. For the duration of the series, volunteers come into our office, pick up their Live United T-shirt and tell High Country Press their views on volunteerism and what they contribute to the community while encouraging others to make a local impact, as well. This week, we focus on Bill Parker, who collects food for Hospitality House, which is a United Way funded partner.
Bill Parker has delivered food to the Hospitality House in Boone three times a week for the past eight years, as well as collecting used eyeglasses and cell phones for charity organizations. “Because I don’t just wear the shirt, I live it.” Photo by Corinne Saunders
After Bill Parker and his wife retired in 1999, they settled down in Blowing Rock and joined St. Mary of the Hills Episcopal Church. Prior to then, Parker had served in the Marine Corps for 23 years, during which time the couple had often moved, he said.
At a church service, the couple was asked to join the church’s outreach committee as members of one of six teams participating in the Hospitality House’s Bread of Life program, which they did, Parker said.
Each team prepared a home-cooked meal once a month for 40 residents of the homeless shelter on King Street in Boone, and the team members were each tasked for a course of the meal, he explained, adding that he and his wife were given dessert as their initial task.
“We went to the Blowing Rock Food Lion and asked the deli section worker to prepare a sheet cake for dessert,” Parker said. “She asked us what we wanted on the cake as decoration, [and] we said to make it festive because it was going to the homeless shelter. The worker then told us that she had spent time in the same shelter.
“She then told us that Food Lion threw away a lot of food that had reached its ‘sell-by’ date and had to be removed from the shelves but the food was perfectly eatable,” Parker said.
Parker contacted Second Harvest Food Bank in Winston-Salem and, after six months, obtained approval to be an agent for the delivery of salvage food from the Blowing Rock Food Lion to the Hospitality House.
“I figure now is my opportunity to pay back to the community,” Parker said. “Before, I was off earning a living [and] didn’t have time.”
Parker no longer participates in the Bread of Life Program, instead focusing on delivering food, which is also an effort through St. Mary of the Hills and has been ongoing for more than eight years.
Parker is in charge of organizing volunteers and reporting to the Second Harvest Food Bank, an organization that prevents edible food from ending up in dumps in an 18-county area.
Three times a week—on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays—a team of volunteers picks up food at Food Lion and Woodlands Barbeque and delivers it to Hospitality House.
“From a small start, we are now delivering more than a ton and a half of food each month,” Parker said.
The official food report states that in 2008, volunteers from St. Mary of the Hills Episcopal Church delivered more than 29,525 pounds of food to the homeless shelter.
“I am very passionate about feeding the hungry,” Parker said. “I cannot imagine being forced by circumstances to seek shelter and food for myself and my family. Just seeing the joy in the eyes of the folks in the shelter when I bring a special treat…like this last Monday when I delivered a case of candied apples. The salvage food has made it possible for Hospitality House to provide breakfasts and lunches, as well as the Bread of Life evening meals.”
In addition to heading up food delivery, Parker collects used eyeglasses for the “Give the Gift of Sight” program that allows the eyeglasses to be repaired and delivered to people in Third World countries who need eyeglasses but cannot afford them, he said.
In six years, he has boxed up and delivered more than 5,000 pairs of glasses to a Hickory office, where they are repaired and shipped out.
Parker is also a member of the Blowing Rock Rotary Club and collects used cell phones, which he delivers to OASIS, Inc. (Opposing Abuse with Services, Information and Shelter).
The cell phone collecting began in 2003 after a daughter of one of the Rotarians was beaten to death in a domestic violence situation, he said.
The cell phones are programmed to only dial 9-1-1 for potential domestic abuse situations.
On Memorial Day each year, Parker and his wife place flags on veterans’ graves that are located in 14 small cemeteries in Watauga and Caldwell counties.
“If one sees a need, they should be willing to try to meet that need,” Parker said. “This covers the full spectrum of needs from battered women, abused children, the homeless, the hungry, the troubled youth, etc. The need is there, and every need is an opportunity for service to others.”
Parker has served on the High Country United Way (HCUW) board for more than two years, and before that, he worked on the HCUW allocations committee for two years, he said.
“Any dime collected by the High Country United Way stays right here,” Parker said. “It’s an opportunity to take care of our own [and that is] what a mountain community does.”
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