Lorraine Leary: Helping with Heart, Mind, and Hands
by Kathleen Downey
A quiet, determined, and compassionate force coalesces and elegantly emanates from Lorraine Leary. But it is the “fire” that sparkles in her blue eyes that hints at Leary’s intrinsic, tireless drive for helping others. I met with Leary in her comfortable apartment at Heritage House to learn about this doyenne of charitable giving.
As a volunteer with Community Service of Newburyport, Inc., since the mid 1970s, Leary today serves as the organization’s president. She describes the organization, which services Newburyport, Newbury, and West Newbury, as a “nitty, gritty charity” that operates solely on donations from the community to provide meals to those who need them. Local school children comprise one group close to Leary’s heart. “I was a Newburyport elementary school nurse for twenty-two years,” Leary tells me. “I remember the children who would come to school without having had breakfast at home.” Under Leary’s leadership, the charity has implemented a breakfast program for those children who come to school hungry. She works closely with the school nurses to determine which children need this assistance.
Leary also volunteers for the Newbury Council on Aging. Most recently, she conducted a blood pressure clinic for residents of Oak Ridge, Quaker Hill, and Newbury Village senior communities.
With her seemingly endless capacity for giving, Leary finds time to volunteer for Opportunity Works of Greater Newburyport, an organization “committed to enhancing the quality of life for people with disabilities by promoting a culture of dignity and respect.” She serves as an advocate on the organization’s Human Rights Committee, dedicated to ensuring that the rights of “persons in need” are represented. Leary has been recognized as Volunteer of the Year more than once for her dedication.
You can also find Leary at her alma mater, the Immaculate Conception School. There she assists eighth-grade students with their community projects. “Each student performs 15 hours of community service of their choice, then creates a poster and reflection paper about the project,” Leary explains. As the consummate volunteer, the students could not ask for a better role model. “I like to tell students to use their ‘heart, mind, and hands’ when thinking about the contribution they can make by volunteering,” she says.
Leary pauses to reminisce and shares with me a memory of her own youth, when “quick hands” were the requirement. She grew up on Strong Street, which Leary describes as a great neighborhood with lots of kids the same age, who all played together till the street lights came on. “Even though it was the Great Depression, we didn’t know it. We were happy,” she remembers. And she remembers Mr. Quill, who worked for the railroad as a baggage handler and whose home abutted the railroad track (today, the site of Battis Grove/Clipper City Rail Trail). “Mr. Quill would open the gate from his home to the tracks, and he would have us children grab the bags lined up on the platform and help him toss the baggage onto the train as it pulled through. What a thrill it gave us!” The thrill still sparkles in Leary’s eyes today.
As a teenager, Leary and her family moved to Forrester Street. She recalls for me her father’s fruit trees, breathing in the memory as if it were a blossom. “And, of course,” she says, “We had a Victory Garden, like many people did during World War II.” Leary explains, “Food was rationed during that time, so people grew their own gardens to do their part and hoped for victory. The gardens were a morale booster.”
When she isn’t busy volunteering, Leary loves to bake. Bread is one of her specialties. She will often bake (from scratch) miniature loaves of different varieties-each loaf a nourishing metaphor for the heart, purposeful mind, and hands that created it. Then she gives them all away to the many people whose lives she touches. As I rose to leave, Leary handed me her last loaf of cranberry-orange. I thanked her.
Kathleen Downey is a contributing writer to Newburyport-Today if you are a “Townie” and would like to be interviewed by Kathleen, please let us know!
