by Bea Peterson
Some people can never do enough for other people. Bev Freemantle of Pittstown is one of those people. Many years ago Bev retired from the telephone company with 30 years of service. While she worked she was a member of the Telephone Pioneers of America, the largest industry related volunteer organization in the world. She still volunteers with the Pioneers. Her group has made playground maps, put together health kits for the homeless and twice a year serves meals at Joseph’s House & Shelter in Troy.
For 16 years Bev has volunteered at the Poestenkill Elementary School every Wednesday for three hours. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 3 to 5:30 pm, she volunteers at the Catch the Spirit day care program at the Pittstown United Methodist
Church hall. She and other volunteers do crafts and play with 18 youngsters ages 4 to 10. She distributes many of the crafts made by the children to the 30 homebound people she visits monthly. “We’re teaching the children the importance of sharing with others,” she said.
On Fridays Bev picks up day old breads from Price Chopper and Pepperidge Farms and delivers them to area food closets. In between these structured volunteer tasks she co-chairs the Church’s program that prepares and serves a meal for families after the funeral service of a loved one.
Bev was pleased to have been recognized for the President’s Volunteer Service Award. The Award is issued by the Points of Light Institute and the Corporation for National and Community Service on behalf of the President of the United States to recognize the best in American spirit and to encourage all Americans to improve their communities through volunteer service and civic participation.
The Award is given to individuals, families and groups that have demonstrated outstanding volunteer service and civic participation over the course of a 12 month period or individuals who complete 4,000 or more hours of volunteer service over the course of their lifetime.
Bev has certainly contributed more than 4,000 hours in her lifetime. And, if you ask her, she’ll tell you, she has more than another 4,000 to give. She and her husband Blaine have one daughter, a granddaughter and a grandson.
