3 Deltona teens learn how gratifying
helping others can be
By
BONNIE ALEXANDER
Correspondent
DELTONA -- Helping citizens in need has turned into a life lesson
for three students who volunteered time at the
The Deltona teenagers, who recently were honored for their
service, said they learned marketable skills and became good friends in the
process. They also learned that it only takes one person to make a difference
in someone's life.
Brandon Monsanto, Johana Calix, and Christie Encarnacion,
all 16, were the first to be a part of a summer intern program held at the
"It's cool to work here," said Monsanto, a sophomore at
Pine Ridge High who worked 39 hours at the center. "I'm always bagging
food and taking it out to the cars, to the people that need it. It gives me a
good feeling."
"I did receptionist work and that was really fun, because
some people when they first come in they're like really nervous about being
here and I would talk to them," said Calix, a
Deltona High junior who logged more than 51 hours at the center.
"Johana learned about the program
and she told me. Then I came, and I stayed," said Encarnacion,
a Deltona High junior who worked 51 hours. "I like the front desk. I like
translating, because we speak Spanish. It was fun. I didn't know there were so
many people in Deltona in need. I wanna come back. I
like being here."
"I didn't expect it to be this good and nice," said Calix. "It was really sad when we had to say goodbye
when it was over."
Phyllis Gregory, executive director at the Community Life Center,
which helps families in need, implemented the summer intern program in hopes
that the students, who one day could be leaders in the community, will remember
that it only takes one person to change the destiny of another. "In the intern program we're really focusing on skills for
job placements. But throughout the year anyone can volunteer. as long as they're 16 or older and if they're younger, with
a parent," Gregory said. "In 2006,
Deltona students volunteered 286
hours.
Not for the intern program, but just by coming in (to volunteer).
Some
parents brought younger students in because they wanted them to have this
experience."
"I'll be coming back next summer,"
Monsanto said.
Helpful Deltona nonprofit closing after 14 years
By MARK HARPER, Staff writer
May 27, 2010 12:05 AM
DELTONA -- A nonprofit assistance center that helped thousands of Deltona families for 14 years will close Friday, its founder announced this week.
The Community Life Center provided food, clothing and household supplies, as well as computers, phones and job-training assistance. The ultimate goal was to help people become self-sufficient. But center was unable to attain that goal for itself, Phyllis Gregory said.
Gregory who along with her husband, Mark, serve as pastors of their own church, the Community Life Worship Center said the agency has racked up about $38,000 in debt. With each month, the center has been falling further and further behind in meeting its monthly fundraising goals.
"This center provided help. It's a shame," said Lourdes Ortiz, a Deltona mother of three who visited the center Tuesday morning with her husband, Alfred.
Alfred has been unable to find steady work in his field, commercial construction, for months, while Lourdes suffers from several physical problems. She walks with a cane and is seeking permanent disability assistance from the federal government. The Ortizes visited the center to speak with volunteer Jean Treusch about employment strategies and to bring home a box of food.
"There have been times I have gone to bed hungry," Lourdes Ortiz said. "This center is really needed."
But Charity Vickers, the current executive director, has been working unpaid for months. She said the center has cut its budget to its barest of bones -- about $4,400 a month, but last month raised only about $1,000.
"We are an agency of integrity," Vickers said. "We want to pay our bills. We've run on volunteers for two years, but are still unable to pay our debtors. That's not right."
What Vickers and Gregory have decided would be right, if difficult, is closing.
A moral lesson
One day in 1996, Gregory dressed as a clown, hoping to entertain and enlighten the neighborhood children playing in a park. She wanted to teach them good morals.
Some of the kids were hungry, so she bought the essentials for peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches. When one boy saw there was leftover bread, he asked if he could take it home.
That act of kindness led to another and then another.
She remembers talking to some of the children about the biblical miracle of the five loaves and two fish. She told them how Jesus made the bread and fish somehow feed a crowd of 5,000.
One boy asked whether such a miracle could occur again. Gregory suggested he offer a prayer.
" 'God, do it again,' that was the prayer," Gregory said, laughing.
Soon, someone called her and said he had heard Gregory was providing food to needy families. He told her he had 10,000 pounds of rice for her to distribute, and offered to deliver it. Before she knew it, Gregory had founded the Community Life Center.
Incentive fee questioned
That was before Gregory, now 54, suffered four strokes and a doctor told her she needs to retire.
Her daughter, Vickers, 29, came on board as executive director. But in the two intervening years, the economy has blasted Deltona, transforming some of the Community Life Center's donors into its clients.
The recession has taken its toll. Some people who once gave to the center are now in line seeking assistance, she said.
Linda Hamilton, a retired teacher who volunteers at the center, said Deltona Mayor Dennis Mulder should reconsider his idea to offer residents $250 apiece as an incentive to strengthen home ownership, and instead consider giving a chunk of the city's $3 million in excess funds to the Community Life Center.
"This is it for Deltona," she said. "There really isn't any other place that does this."
Gregory, who has remained the center's board chair, and her husband co-signed for some of the center's loans and will be personally on the hook to pay them back.
She and her daughter, Vickers, are trying to raise money to help pay down the debt so that another social services agency might be more likely to continue the Community Life Center's mission.
Shirley Riegel, a volunteer, reached into her wallet Tuesday and suggested if every resident of Deltona gave $1, the center could continue.
"This is a horrible event," she said. "Hundreds of families are going to be affected.
Riegel gave Gregory $8