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| Voracious volunteering |
| By Sarah Etter, News Reporter |
| Published: 12/18/2006 |
Cooking turkeys, participating in marathons and buying toys might not seem like typical activities in the field of corrections. But when off-duty calls, everyone in corrections gets involved in a big way to help those in need.In Rhode Island, COs caught the volunteering bug when RIDOC officer John Gorman was diagnosed with brain cancer. His peers were quick to start walking when officer Mike Porter created the walk-marathon outfit Team Gorman. “We created a team of COs for the 26.2-mile Boston Marathon Walk sponsored by the Jimmy Fund in September,” Porter says. “We saw a lot of generosity from the people we work with so we've continued to plan our own walking marathon.” Team Gorman canvases neighborhoods to find marathon sponsors, who donate dollars per miles walked. The marathon madness has earned more than $6,000 to help pay for Gorman's cancer treatment at the Dana Farber Institute in Boston. Gorman is currently in good health, but the treatments are costly and require him to take days off. But his CO friends are helping him with that too. 
Team Gorman“In Rhode Island, we can donate our sick time. John is an inspiration to everybody. He's a great friend and an upstanding guy. So we accumulate sick time and donate our days to him so he can get treatment and keep his paycheck flowing without interruption,” Porter adds. All of this hard work isn't lost on Gorman. “These guys on Team Gorman have been incredible. They've kept me going, believe me. There were times during the year that I didn't know what I was going to do. I don't know where else I would have gotten the same support as I have from the people that work with me in prison,” Gorman says. “If any other CO is going through this, I recommend fundraising. I can't say enough about how much these COs and Mike [Porter] have done for my family, and for me.” The next step for Team Gorman is an April 22nd road race in Cumberland, Rhode Island, which Porter hopes will be a success. “We're already expecting a large turnout,” Porter says. “There is a lot of love here for John.” The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Service upholds one volunteering tradition that is certainly not for the birds. ECI Secretary Vanessa Ann Cooper had a turkey crisis and the DOC stepped in to help for the holidays. “I'm part of a church soup kitchen here. We usually feed the elderly and the homeless soups and sandwiches every Wednesday,” explains ECI Secretary Vanessa Ann Cooper. “But we also fix holiday dinners for these folks, and we need to cook about 60 turkeys for each holiday.” When DOC officials found out the soup kitchen was struggling to find ovens to cook the birds, they opened the stove doors at the Eastern Correctional Institution. “The DOC reserves us one full day in the kitchens to cook,” Cooper says. “We have great ovens here because we're usually feeding three hot meals to 4,000 inmates a day.” But the DOC doesn't stop there. Once the turkeys are cooked, a DOC truck makes a special holiday delivery, dropping off the white and dark meat to the soup kitchen. “We used to have to caravan with six cars to get all of the food back to the soup kitchen,” Cooper recalls with a laugh. “But everyone just pitches in at the DOC and I'm so proud of them.” Cooper and her friends don't forget those who can't make it to the soup kitchen, either. After preparing the meals with all of the fixings, volunteers deliver the tasty goods to anyone who cannot drive. Cooper says tis the season for giving. “Volunteering is just a matter of having a giving heart. You don't even need a boatload of folks. You just need good intent and a desire to help people,” she says. That desire to help can be seen across the country. In Kern County, California, prison employees are playing Santa for kindergarten students in need. The staff at Kern Valley State Prison chose to give back to the Delano Valle Vista School, which is within close range of many Section 8 housing units, according to The Californian. The children at the school were given everything from clothes to dolls after they filled out forms to request their favorite toys. “I bought a boy's bicycle,” said CO R. Arriaga. “They were going to be short on bicycles so I went and bought one.” Some COs sponsored two children, and bought enough gifts for both. But no matter how many gifts a CO purchased, everyone felt holiday cheer as 554 students were presented with presents. Bottom line: Volunteering is a way for corrections to shine. Whether you're donating gifts, working at a soup kitchen or sponsoring a holiday toy drive, share your volunteering stories with Corrections.com! Related resources: If you are interested in joining Team Gorman, email Mike Porter. |
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