[ccfic caption-text format="plaintext"]
By Katrina Margolis
Hometown Weekly Reporter
One of the benefits of living in a smaller town as opposed to a big city is the sense of community one can garner from their neighbors. While this feeling might be vague in some towns, Medfield is quite the opposite - some of the most fervent support and camaraderie can be found within this community.
When Laurie Nealon and Kathleen Cahill set up the Medfield Neighbor Brigade, at the time called Medfield Angels, they had over 100 volunteers within a single week. Now the organization boasts more than 500 volunteers, one of the most active chapters of Neighbor Brigade in the area.
Medfield Neighbor Brigade provides care and comfort for Medfield families in temporary crisis. “Surgery, illness, any kind of accident, tragedies unfortunately,” Cahill explained. “It doesn’t matter if you know me or not, you can bring me a meal. And then this frees up time for family and close friends to do the other things, like drive the kids around, help with homework, to be there.”
Families can either reach out to the Brigade themselves, or friends will reach out to tell Nealon and Cahill what’s going on. “There are two roles for our volunteers. One is to sign up and drive and deliver meals, and the other is to be an active Angel in our society … if you see people who are in need, ask them what we can do to help,” Nealon elaborated.
It began in 2010 when Nealon had an idea. “I had this idea of connecting people who had needs with people who are in need. A friend of mine is an Angel in Medway - they already had a chapter - and she was telling me about it, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is exactly what I want to do!’”
Shortly afterwards, Nealon got in touch with Pam Washek from Wayland. “Pam had had cancer and received such an outpouring of support for her family, she said: ‘I want to do something to give back.’ So she founded Medway Angels back in 2007,” Nealon explained. “I pulled my friend Kathleen into it and we founded Medfield Angels!”
Medfield was one of the first towns to establish this sort of program.
Even though the Angels were growing, Washek believed that every town in Massachusetts should have one of these philanthropic communities. “She established the Neighbor Brigade as a non-profit. So it’s Neighbor Brigade’s mission to push this kind of community out into every community. We now have about 26 chapters across the state - we’ve spread into New Hampshire and Connecticut, so it is spreading, which is so exciting,” Nealon said.
In 2012, Washek lost her battle with cancer. “She was such an amazing person. The board of Neighbor Brigade is continuing her mission,” Nealon said. “So that’s why we switched from the Medfield Angels to the Neighbor Brigade. We went under their chapter. It’s nice to be tied to something bigger.”
To date, Neighbor Brigade has helped 70 families, delivered over 1,400 meals, and maintains over 500 volunteers. In addition to delivering meals, the Neighbor Brigade also works with the Medfield Cupboard to bake bread around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. The loaves go with baskets the cupboard puts together for families in need.
In addition, they have collaborated with the Lions Club on the Care Package Program. The Lions Club, through funds raised at the Spring Gala, puts together gift cards for families in need.
“The only reason why this program is successful is because of our incredible volunteers,” Nealon said. “Medfield is such a special community and has made this possible for the past seven years. And we are always in need of more volunteers!”
Medfield residents may sign up through www.neighbrigade.org.
