Medfield Volunteer Group: Neighbors Helping Neighbors

Imagine having over 500 neighbors; all willing to lend a hand during times of crisis.

Through the efforts of Medfield residents, Laurie Nealon and Kathleen Cahill, those helpful neighbors are one simple mouse-click away.

“Laurie had been thinking, for awhile, that there was something that she wanted to do; something was pulling her to do something to give back to the community,” Cahill said. 

That “something” materialized when a friend from Medway told her about that community’s Neighbor Brigade. “Laurie thought it sounded great and said ‘Kathleen, you have to do this with me' and I thought that it sounded wonderful,” Cahill said.

Together, they began organizing what eventually would become the Medfield chapter of the Neighbor Brigade. 

The idea for the Neighbor Brigade originated with Wayland resident, Pam Washek.

“When Pam (was battling) cancer,” Nealon said, “she received tremendous support from her community and wanted to find a way to give back and (so she) created the Wayland Angels.”

After several years, that group was incorporated as a non-profit and changed their name to the Neighbor Brigade.

“Her idea has since spread into other communities,” Nealon said.

In the past year, alone, the organization has grown to include 24 New England communities.

“We were the seventh community to sign on,” Nealon stated.

Cahill explained the mission of the Brigade as being “a way to be able to pull the community together, to help make a difference for a family, when crisis hits, as it does for everybody, from time to time. The idea is neighbors helping neighbors.”

Through the Brigade’s website, volunteers can access information on what volunteer services are needed and select the task that they would like to take on.

“We connect with a representative of the family, to find out how we can help,” Nealon said. “Then we post it on a calendar at our website and also send out emails to our volunteers.”

Whether the family is troubled by illness, tragic accidents, surgery and “things like that,” the 535 “angels” of the Medfield Neighbor Brigade are there to lend their support. “When we first started, we were called the Medfield Angels,” Nealon siad. “We still call our volunteers ’angels.’”

The temporary assistance offered by the Brigade might include providing meals, providing volunteers to carry out routine tasks, such as grocery shopping, or providing transportation to and from medical appointments. 

The group has also reached out to other organizations in town, offering their assistance, to groups such as  Medfield Youth Outreach.

“We’ve done the Birthday Wishes program for the children that they service,” Nealon said. “They give us a list of anonymous birthdays that are coming up and we’ll put out lists to our volunteers."We also work with the Food Cupboard and we’ve done 45 loaves of bread, to go along with their Thanksgiving and other holiday distributions.”  

Nealon added that “some friends, in town, started up a Christmas Wishes program. They fund a (Medfield) family for the holidays. So, last year, they went to our site and we worked together with them and sponsored a lot of families for the holidays.”

The creation of the Neighbor Brigade, has essentially extended the traditional “neighborhood” to include the entire community, while providing a way for those in temporary crisis to receive assistance through the generosity of their “neighbors.”

“A lot of times, when somebody goes through a crisis, the immediate neighbors know about it and their friends know about it, but this is a way that others can pitch in and help,” Nealon said. 

“(And) it’s amazing that there are so many people in the community that (do) want to help,” Cahill added.