Volunteer: Patti Mitchell

So Much More than She Bargained For

By Beth A. Klahre

When Patti Mitchell decided to volunteer at the Brunswick Center at Southport, she never expected other volunteers to become her best friends.

Patti has been volunteering in the kitchen for the past three years, packaging the cold food components of the meals that are distributed daily through Meals on Wheels. She starts her day bright and early at 7:30 a.m. She’s there two or three days a week for at least an hour, but usually it’s more like two and a half hours until the work is done.

Patti recalls seeing an ad in the State Port Pilot looking for volunteers for Meals on Wheels. The ad was looking for kitchen help versus drivers. “Without knowing exactly what was involved, I started helping with hot meals,” she says.

Southport: Slower Pace, Better Weather

Patti and her husband Bucky moved to Southport six years ago. Born in California, she spent her adult life as a Jersey girl just outside of New York City close to Philadelphia. Southport was an escape to a slower, less inhabited place with better weather. She says, “We love the small town. I ride my bike to the waterfront and I walk to the senior center. It’s a really nice place to live. But the people! They are even nicer!” “The people I work with are special,” Patti says. “Our cook is Amber Ramsey. And Dean Francisco delivers the food that we package to Boiling Spring Lakes and Oak lsland. Noreene Duggan is a wonderful, really, really sweet person. We have become great friends. We do things together outside of the center at least once per week. Bev and Henry Bridgers are really, really down-to-earth people. You know what you are getting when you’re friends with them. Melissa Catlett has become a good friend! And the drivers are super nice people too,” she says.

A Feel-Good Kind of Thing

Patti volunteers week after week. And not just because she enjoys her new friends. There is a higher purpose. “I know I am helping other people. I like what I’m doing. I don’t have to do any preplanning, just show up, get assigned a task, and do it.” Retired after 32 years as a high school physical education and health teacher from Lenape Regional High School District in Medford, New Jersey, Patti says this job is no pressure. “It’s not like teaching where I was on stage five days a week. It’s easy, fun, and a feel-good kind of thing.”

A Loyal Volunteer

Patti, who was also a volunteer at Southport Oak Island Animal Rescue, enjoys playing pickleball. “The center comes first. I’m loyal and if I say I’m going to be at the center, I’m there. Else, I play pickleball, weather permitting.” Through volunteering, Patti has discovered that there are more needy people in the area than she realized. “I am surprised at the number of people who qualify for meals in our little area. At one point we were sending out close to 100 meals every day.”

When she’s not volunteering or playing pickleball, the Mitchells travel to New Jersey to dote on five grandkids, age seven and under.