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02/28/2018 07:30 AMKathy Umlauf says it started two years ago when Lent began. Instead of giving something up, she wanted to give something by volunteering somewhere, and noticed a bulletin at her church that the East Haven Food Pantry was looking for a driver to pick up leftover breads, pies, and cakes from ShopRite every Saturday morning and bring them back to the pantry.
She continues to do that delivery, and last summer when food pantry President Dianne Romans asked for someone to be the coordinator of the Back Pack for Kids program, Kathy says, “I looked at my husband and I raised my hand.”
Volunteers for the program meet every other Wednesday at the pantry to assemble 176 bags of food and drinks for underprivileged children in the elementary schools to take home for the weekend. The bags are distributed to the schools and given to the students on Fridays.
She says she couldn’t do it without the help of her husband John and the other volunteers, as they all help make the program work and do it for the children.
“It’s actually been really rewarding,” Kathy says, “I love it.”
One of Kathy’s friends, a secretary at one of the schools, told her how excited the kids get when their food bags arrive. Sometimes some special treats will be included with the food.
“Somebody had donated candy canes, so we were putting three or four candy canes in the bag. So I’m sure they loved that—maybe their mothers didn’t,” Kathy says with a laugh.
Kathy says she wanted to be more involved with the pantry besides delivering food on Saturdays, and that Romans inspired her to become more involved with the pantry.
“She’s so active in it, and so involved, and she was like an inspiration to me,” Kathy says.
The pantry relies on donations, and Kathy mentioned that a few weeks ago, a company donated $1,000 to the pantry to use toward purchasing food. She and Romans went to stores like BJs and Aldi to purchase food. Kathy was also involved in a bingo fundraiser for the pantry in the fall, which she says had a good turnout.
Being involved with the pantry also gave her an opportunity to try something new. One of the people from Our Lady of Pompeii Church, who also volunteers at the pantry, encouraged Kathy to join the church’s choir. Even though she told the person she couldn’t sing, he still encouraged Kathy to join.
“So, there it goes, I was in the choir,” Kathy says, “We have so much fun.”
Kathy says that about five times per year, Our Lady of Pompeii Church volunteers will cook hot meals all day, and she’s one of the people that deliver those meals to the men’s homeless shelter on Grand Avenue in New Haven.
“That’s really rewarding, I mean those guys really appreciate it,” Kathy says, “The first time I walked out of there I was crying because they’re like, ‘Thank you, you don’t what this means.’”
As members of the Elks in Branford, Kathy and John volunteer there as well. Kathy says that about three times per year, Elks go to the V.A. Hospital in West Haven to play Bingo with the blind.
Professionally, Kathy has worked at the Yale School of Medicine for 36 years. She’s currently the residency coordinator for the department of orthopedics, where she’s involved with the selection of candidates seeking a five year residency after medical school and making sure all accreditation requirements of the program are met.
She also ran a daycare out of her home for 13 years, and says her children, Christina and Stephanie, always had other kids to play with. She still worked at Yale during that time, but did so part-time as an operator from 7 p.m. to midnight.
“I was able to stay home with the help of my husband because I had to go to work now at night…and he would help with our kids and everything,” Kathy says.
When her kids became teenagers, Kathy closed her daycare and went back to Yale full-time in 2001 in the role she’s in now.
When it comes to volunteering, she says it feels it makes her feel great to give back in all the ways she does.
“If anybody wants to feel good, volunteer, because that’ll make your day,” Kathy says.