Your Incredible Neighbor: VOLUNTEER SPIRIT

GV resident stays involved in community

Volunteering at a vision clinic in Mexico a couple years ago proved to be the most gratifying vacation Green Valley resident Sue Spiewak ever took.

Joining in this Rotary Club trip to Colima, Mexico, Spiewak and the group traveled to various towns, giving eye exams and glasses to about 1,200 people a day.

She’ll never forget the look on the face of one elderly woman, who said she was no longer able to thread a needle or read, when the woman put on her new glasses.

“It was most gratifying,” Spiewak says. “I’ve never had such a good vacation.”

Her volunteer spirit is just as strong at home, where she is active with Desert Hills Lutheran Church, St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic and more.

After moving to Green Valley four years ago from Tucson, this 65-year-old mother of four and grandmother of six was looking for the right volunteer opportunity when she spotted the St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic in Green Valley.

She started out helping in the office, then took over the bulk mailing of the clinic’s quarterly newsletters, Christmas letter and annual fundraising letter for the cleft palate surgeries in Hermosillo, Mexico.

Spiewak started by recruiting friends she plays tennis with and now has about 900 volunteers, including winter visitors, who help insert, seal and label the 5,500 newsletters that go out with each mailing.

“We have a good time doing it,” she points out, estimating that they save the clinic about $1,000 per mailing versus paying for a mailing service.

“And it’s very important to get others involved,” she adds.

Spiewak also stepped up this spring to organize the annual Blender Bash at Desert Hills Lutheran Church, in which the church’s youth group makes and sells milk shakes after two church services in mid-March.

The event, with the help of some matching funds, raised about $1,300 for the purchase of blenders, dietary supplements and vitamins for St. Andrew’s, which distributes the blenders to its cleft palate patients, Spiewak explains.

In addition, she sorts through used clothing that Desert Hills collects and distributes to the Primavera men’s shelter and Casa Paloma women’s shelter in Tucson and to a shelter in Nogales, Ariz.

The public is welcome to bring clothing donations to the church at 2150 S. Camino del Sol. Baby and children’s clothing can be taken to the St. Andrew’s clinic on Calle de las Tiendas in Green Valley.

“We always need diapers, hygiene” items and nutritional drinks, she adds.

Plus, Spiewak and her friend Mary Lindblom, who also helps with the newsletter mailings, are organizing a Mother’s Day clinic, this year on May 1, at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Nogales, Ariz.

Mothers who bring their children to the church that day for medical attention receive such items as travel soaps and lotions, jewelry, perfume and nail polish donated for the event.

The free, monthly clinic, held the first Thursday of most months, draws about 250 children who are seen for medical problems including hearing, speech, cleft palate, orthopedics and more.

The children receive coloring books, crayons, paper and scissors during a special back-to-school event in September at the clinic.

The mothers, in particular, are grateful for the aid, “and the children also are very thankful,” Spiewak points out.

Growing up in the Chicago area, Spiewak knew many Hispanic families, developed a respect for their culture and, through travels in Mexico, became aware of the needs of impoverished families, she says.

“I feel I can’t impact the entire world, but I’m aware of (global) needs and ... have to do something to help,” she says.

Spiewak also is making time to serve on Desert Hills’ religious education committee and will start visiting some local home-bound folks.

In addition, she hopes to start recruiting adult tennis players to teach the sport to fifth- and sixth-grade students in the Tucson Community Tennis Program.

“There are so many different things a person can get involved in,” Spiewak says. “This is a vibrant, caring community that wants to outreach.”

This summer, Spiewak will spend more than a month in China, with three weeks devoted to teaching English to students at Wuhan University through the Teach for Friendship Foundation.

kwalenga@gvnews.com | 547-9739