October 11, 2026
Three in Two
By Randy Dyer
It’s a rainy day and football starts in an hour, so I will tell you three success stories in two chapters.
Chapter 1
We put out a modest call for a few good volunteers to help unload the truck that was making a download from the Metropolitan Mother Ship. Jim Griffin, Pat Bakey, Jack Gibala, Phil Burroughs, Meg Kinneberg, Dorea McMahon and Chris Netram all answered. The truck came, we loaded up the storage unit (to bursting), and we were done, right? Wrong.
A move we had been following for a few days landed on us that morning — mother and three kids, including a two-year-old. So, we go, or they sleep on the floor. Since that wasn’t an option, we said, come with us if you can, we understand if you can’t. Most of them said, “Whose car are we taking?”
To that gang Jimmy added two of his grandchildren, one of whom brought two friends, and asked the family who they could get and they responded with a fit young man who could and did lift everything. On site, everyone took on whatever task they saw needed doing without asking, and we were in and out in twenty minutes.
Oh, and lest the Toy and Book Committee jump down my throat for not letting them know, we called an audible. Dorea and Meg jumped in their car, headed for Michaels and came back with a toy/book bag for each of the children.
Man, it’s great when good people make good things happen.
Chapter 2
I told you that on Friday we were invited to the Xaverian Service Fair at Good Counsel. It was an expo of local charities who were there to explain what they do in an effort to entice some of the students to earn a part of their twenty-hour-per-year Community Service requirement by working for them.
We made two posters, some handouts and a signup sheet and sent Susie Dyer (grandmother of a GC senior and sophomore), Cindy Poz (who taught at GC for many years), and Andre Jackson to organize, manage and add gravitas to the affair.
When the smoke cleared, we had sixty signups.
On a side note, when Andre arrived, he quickly saw that while we had a booth, we had no “swag”. Other booths had bowls of candy to entice the adolescents. He jumped into action, secured a bowl from the cafeteria and went around to the other booths to beg, borrow or steal enough candy to get us started while Susie called Mike Dyer with instructions to bring candy. He brought 4 large bags which should have been enough for two events and Halloween, except that we had none left at the end of the day.
The kids will require some special handling to incorporate them into moves going forward, but nothing we can’t handle. I’m sure we will have a growing number of volunteers that can best be described as mobile, agile and gentle in future moves.
Well done all.