“Nope, nope, nope, that’s not Riley’s voice,. I know her voice, and you aren’t her, honey,” Mrs. Brooker squawked at my shaking friend. I was training Adeline to take delivery requests for Here2help. On her first try, Addie nervously said my name instead of hers because it was written in the script. I ripped the phone from her, “Hello Mrs. Brooker, sorry. Sorry for the confusion. thatThat was my friend Adeline, she's. She's still in training.” A sigh of relief came from the other end followed by, “there's“There's that voice.” Here2help calls became part of my daily routine, and the one to Mrs. Brooker evolved into a treasured time of my week.

Mrs. Brooker was the sole caretaker of six grandchildren. A recent surgery limited her mobility, so every week, she called Here2help to appraise us of her needs. Our “organization” started with six of us high school kids who collected donations, took orders, and arranged drivers for deliveries to families experiencing food insecurity during Covid lock-downthe COVID lockdown. We packaged the supplies in my garage. From March to September of 2020, we moved 40,000 pounds of much neededmuch-needed groceries, close to 200 bags, per week. The established food pantries in the area were struggling to reach people like Mrs. Brooker, who relied on public transit. A BCCHS senior recognized this problem and Here2help was born. Each member of our small group had a responsibility in the operation: some chased down donations, others bundled food, and I took orders over the phone because nobody else was really interested in that much concentratedmuch-concentrated personal interaction. Later in our program, Montgomery County added some of their own supplies to the distribution setup being run out of the car stall where my mom’s minivan should have been. My best friend, Adeline, was at my house when I made some of the Here2help calls. She overheard my side of the discussion, and joined the growing, small army of friends that I was recruitingrecruited to help with the organizing, bagging, and delivering. After Addie’s attempt at working the phones with Mrs. Brooker, I appreciated the value of the relationships cultivated during these brief conversations, so I kept that responsibility.

Your voice has the capability to inject passion and intention into all your pursuits, transforming them into powerful statements of purpose. It is in the nuance of tone, candacecadence, and emotion wherethat our messages truly come alive, resonating in a way that mere actions and words alone cannot. Through this experience, I was able to connect with hundreds of voices, and their families. It was those voices, both in English and Spanish, and the stories behind them that made coordinating deliveries a discovery in itself. I never met Mrs. Brooker face to face,; however, hearing her voice, for ten minutes each week, was enough to create a human bond. Through these short exchanges, I gleaned that her grandchildren and I shared an affinity for Lucky Charms. Anytime I spied them in the donation bin, I squirreled the box away just for the Brooker kids. When she shared her fears over another surgery, I made sure to cram extra comfort food into her deliveries. During Here2help’s second year, we chatted about my soccer position, my articles for the school newspaper, and her oldest “grandbaby's” violin lessons. In our third year of collaboration, we celebrated her fifth grandchild beginning kindergarten and me being named captain of the basketball team. Through all our time together, we felt the resonance in our “yammering,” as Mrs. Brooker called it.