WASHBURN, N.D. (AP) - Melissa VanPelt opened her door to women bearing a birthday cake and balloons in celebration and memory of the baby that had died that day two years ago.
More than a pretty cake, they brought warmth and friendship to drive away the cold sorrow of a January night. They stood outside with the family and released balloons into the darkness, the glow of them visible deep into the night sky.
“It was so beautiful. They make me love this town more and more,” VanPelt told the Bismarck Tribune (https://bit.ly/1F02LCH ).
The women are a loose-knit, but dedicated, group called Labor of Love in Washburn. They use Facebook and cell phones to carry out their mission of helping families who are experiencing difficulty in Washburn. In VanPelt’s case, it was the death of a baby boy, Charlee, born prematurely.
They were there right after the death, too, when the VanPelts had lived in town for more than a year, socially isolated, their older children still attending school in Bismarck during the transition.
“We hadn’t met anyone yet (after Charlee). A group of girls came over with food and baskets for the older kids. Their welcoming spirit and kind thoughts were overwhelming. I had no idea that such a great group existed,” VanPelt said.
The women invited her to join a Mommy and Me club they’ve also organized to take walks and share playground time together.
“It honestly helped me, knowing we weren’t alone,” VanPelt said.
Laura Gardner and Kirsten Olson are members of Labor of Love, a group with about 70 members using Facebook to suggest a family they can help with meals, after illness, an accident, a death or some misfortune. Responses to contribute come in - “I’ll make spaghetti,” or “I’ll bake cupcakes.” Others volunteer to make the delivery, and another act of human kindness is done.
Gardner and Olson estimate they’ve reached out to many more than 300 people in the three years they’ve been organized.
They’ve done everything from feed a couple of visiting football teams to make sure they left town with warm, homemade food in their hungry bellies, to providing quiet, behind-the-scenes help to a family who needs clothing or books for the children.
They were there for the Wes Doepke family, after one of their South African farmhands died in a farm accident.
“They were shocked that we wanted to come out with meals for them,” said Gardner, adding it is not easy, but, at the same time, it is wonderful to walk into such situations where even an angel might fear to tread.
“The deliveries are awesome,” Olson said.
They’ve become known as the go-to group when an “earth angel” is needed, according to Gardner.
“We just say, ’There’s someone we could love up a little.’”
Every year, on the anniversary of the school killings at Sandy Hook, Connecticut, they remember their school teachers and deputies with small baskets of treats.
The group is mostly younger women in their 20s and 30s, but some of the community’s older women also help and Gardner says the combination of fun and wisdom is magical.
Olson knows how hard it can be to receive. Her husband, a member of the Wilton volunteer fire department, was badly burned a decade ago, and the couple, then with three children, was without an income for 18 months. The community held a benefit to help.
“I didn’t grow up in North Dakota, and I thought, ’Why on earth would people care about other people?’ But deep down I know that people need to be taken care of. It’s important to let people give, and you grow so much by helping,” Olson said.
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Information from: Bismarck Tribune, https://www.bismarcktribune.com
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