Volunteers of the Old School Food Pantry of Rumford, from left, are: Bill and Bev Gallant, Rod Kuhl, pantry Manager Shannon Glover, Michelle Billings, Anne Wood, Sharon Welch, Joe Sirois, Dick Lovejoy and Ron Welch. The pantry offers nutritious food and cooking classes for residents of the River Valley area. Submitted photo.

Rumford’s Shannon Glover received the 2022-23 Rotarian of the Year award from the River Valley Rotary Club of Greater Rumford in July for her humanitarian contributions as a Rotarian to her community.

Shannon Glover of Rumford received the 2022-23 Rotarian of the Year award from the River Valley Rotary Club of Greater Rumford in July. Submitted photo

Glover is the manager of the Old School Food Pantry of Rumford and she’s also a Red Cross ambassador and community volunteer for the Red Cross.

Besides her work at the food pantry and her volunteer work for the Red Cross, she also teaches her children, ages 10 and 13, as well as other children in the community, how to do volunteer work in their community.

She recently talked with us about her volunteerism, why she enjoys managing the Old School Food Pantry and how helping others is her passion.

Making connections with people and being approachable to them comes naturally to you. Explain what those attributes look like in your volunteer work with the American Red Cross and with helping homeless people in the River Valley area. Being approachable is beneficial in both working with the Red Cross as well as with people experiencing homelessness because they feel comfortable speaking to me about issues that may be sensitive; for example, substance use disorders or mental health issues. Making sure to smile and make eye contact when approaching them seems to give them the confidence they need to know they can speak to me without being judged.

With the Red Cross, being approachable is beneficial as we see many repeat individuals donating their blood at blood drives. So, after over a year of crossing paths in this capacity, I am able to call them by name and they recognize me and know who I am.

This has led to individuals reaching out to me when I’m just in the community and asking when our next blood drive is, which helps boost the amount of individuals we have donating blood to those in need.

You’ve described your job as the food pantry manager for the Old School Pantry in Rumford as a passion of yours. What is it about the work that you enjoy? When it comes to working at the Old School Food Pantry, one of the things I enjoy is the connections I have made there with other community organizations, such as Oxford County Mental Health, the Larry LaBonte Recovery Center, Holy Savior Church, the River Valley Rotary, the Community Garden Group and Servants Heart Pantry.

I also enjoy the group of volunteers that we have working at the Old School Pantry. They are a great, caring, compassionate group that works very well together at achieving our goals.

You’ve also taught your children the importance of volunteering and you’re teaching other children in the community to volunteer as well. What kinds of volunteer services can children do and how many hours a week do you recommend they do? This is another big passion of mine — teaching children the importance they can make in the community regardless of their age. My children, ages 10 and 13, are required to do at least five hours of community service a week. Sometimes these opportunities are things that other groups in the community have suggested to me and sometimes we allow the junior volunteers to pick something they wish to do.

For example, they have mowed lawns, made lunches for older adults in the community who may not get out, and helped shop for food for the food pantry. And sometimes we do what we call a community trash walk, which is simply grabbing a trash bag and some rubber gloves and walking through neighborhoods to pick up any trash or debris.

Students of Region 9 School of Applied Technology in Mexico built this woodshed with funds raised by members of Holy Savior Church, Shannon Glover and other community members. The shed will store wood donations for residents of the River Valley area in need of emergency wood supply to heat their homes in the winter months. Submitted photo

Last year you joined forces with a local church and other members of the community to raise funds to allow students at Region 9 School of Applied Technology in Mexico to build a wood bank shed for families in need of firewood in the River Valley area. How will that work? The woodshed was a community-supported project. There were multiple donations through the Holy Savior Church here in Rumford and there was also fundraising done by Gary Dolloff (the Greater Rumford Community Center director) as well as private donations mailed directly to me.

A wood bank works similar to a food bank. We are hoping to have it filled by the end of summer to be able to help individuals in the River Valley area who may find themselves a little short of wood in the middle of winter. Again, this is not a ‘fill people’s basement’ or wood pile project. It is just a truckload of wood to help them get through until arrangements can be made for them to purchase wood from a logger or other supplier in the community.

If you’d like to donate wood to the River Valley wood bank, you may contact Shannon Glover via her Facebook page.