For the last 14 years, Gerry Sherry has spent every Wednesday volunteering with Meals on Wheels of the Greater Lehigh Valley. After seeing an ad in the paper, Sherry and her husband decided to spend their time giving back. Even after her husband passed away, she continued forming bonds with the clients she saw.
Meals on Wheels works to provide specially curated, healthy meals to clients around the area when they cannot provide for themselves. Whether it's an economic, mobility or medical hurdle, all are welcomed in the program. The meals, both hot and cold, are delivered to each client daily, and Sherry is happy to be the one delivering them. “It's wonderful to see the people, the looks on their faces, when we arrive with the meals,” Sherry says. She meets with other volunteers to pick up the individual meals that meet each client's dietary needs.
While the nutritious meals they deliver are obviously valuable, the real gift is the time that each volunteer spends with the clients, who quickly become their friends. For those who are living alone or are unable to leave the house for social events, the compassion and company that volunteers like Sherry provide is priceless.
“We are happy to come in and talk for those who want to,” Sherry says. “They get lonely.” She even had one client ask her to move in and marry him! Unfortunately, she declined. “He had to join the list of men chasing after me first!” she jokes. “Everyone has that special personality, that compassion,” Sherry says. “The people are happy to see us, and that's the key.” (During the COVID-19 pandemic, new and veteran volunteers continued the incredible work of Meals on Wheels while following safety and social-distancing guidelines.)
When she's not working with Meals on Wheels, she is also serving on the board of Lehigh Valley's National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). She works to organize local events that support fellow parents of children that struggle with mental illness. Having a daughter diagnosed with schizophrenia, Sherry wanted to make sure other parents had the support they needed to fight the stigma of mental illness.
