Volunteer Profile

Pat White volunteers for several different activities at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Mattoon. White, 77, is a Mattoon native, graduating from the former Mattoon High School. She and her husband, Dale, owned and operated a meat market and a mink farm. Then she was a homemaker, raising five children. Pat and Dale, who was a supervisor for Miron Construction, were married 56 years before his death. There are now 17 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren; they all live near her. “I spend a lot of time with them,” White said. White also helps with drug and alcohol counseling. For 15 years she has bean a basket weaver and demonstrates them at a cultural festival in Stevens Point once a year. This weekend White and several other weavers will be at the Comfort Inn and Suites in Shawano at a workshop. She is a lifetime member of St. John’s Lutheran Church and for many years flew to villages in Canada to teach Vacation Bible School. Q Where do you volunteer? A “At St. John’s Lutheran Church and at the Birnamwood Area Community Cupboard.” Q What do you do? A “I an in the Ladies Aid and I teach Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. I help at the Harvest Festival on Oct. 17. We have a fish pond for the kids. I do that every year. We hook prizes on a line. Every year Kurt Martin goes to Fleet Farm and buys prizes for the kids. Everything is free, but people can give a free will offering. Often people will come back because maybe they belonged here once. “Sunday School just started for kids from 3 and up. There’s a lot of helpers. We do a big craft that I do for Vacation Bible School every year. The Ladies Aid is in charge of the festival.” White has helped at the food pantry in the church basement since its beginning: “I deliver food to people that need it and help put the food away.” She also visits a daughter and others who are at Homme Home in Wittenberg. Q Why do you volunteer? A “I feel that God does assign everybody a purpose and I feel I am fulfilling God’s purpose in my life. If we love the Lord, we know what we’re supposed to do.”