Volunteering On Long Island: 'Just A Pure Joy'

LINDENHURST, NY — April is Volunteer Appreciation Month, and to celebrate, we'll be profiling some of the many amazing volunteers who work with Long Island Cares for the benefit of the hungry and food insecure in our community.

Meet Barry Levane. Barry and his wife Rosanne started volunteering with Long Island Cares to help fill food boxes at the holidays.

"It was just a pure joy," Levane said.

They started because they were about to retire, and aside from traveling they wanted to keep occupied.

"A lot of our friends were moving off the island. We realized the social aspect of what we had here was beginning to diminish. We had to go out of our way to establish new connections," he told Patch. "We need face to face interaction, which is much more rewarding. You’re getting out, you’re doing something, you’re not sitting like a lump at home."

Now the 73-year-old and his wife occasionally work at LIC's warehouse in Hauppauge, and at the veterans' food pantry in Lindenhurst, which is open Tuesdays. "My father was a Purple Heart recipient, and currently our grandson is in the Air Force stationed in Germany," Levane said. "We’ve always had a soft spot for any veterans. It’s a great, great group of people that come in there. It’s wonderful to meet with them and thank them for their service."

There’s a lot of camaraderie among the volunteers and between the volunteers and the clients, he said.

"The vets are incredibly appreciative," he said. "There they are at 9 o'clock in the morning with smiles on their faces. We talk as we go through the pantry and choose things off the shelves. We have conversations — 'How are you, what’s going on?' And you know that maybe you just saved them one shopping trip, you certainly saved them money. A lot of them have pets and the price of pet food today is insane. If they don’t need something they don’t take it."

The other thing that's heartening is watching different organizations and groups drive up with donations — sometimes even a trailerful.

"It's amazing, the generosity of people driving up and dropping off food," he said. "You really do leave with a wonderful feeling."

Of course, retirement isn't really what Levane is doing these days, because he's also working with Century 21 in Lindenhurst.

"It’s the kind of job that lets me be very flexible," he said.

Before that he was co-owner of a custom software design firm in Manhattan. "Then when people started buying packages off the shelf or having their own in-house staff write their software we saw the writing on the wall. I started looking around — I was helping my kids buy homes, and I thought this is fun."

He has lived in Lindenhurst since he was a second-grader.

"This really started with my upbringing," he said. "Watching my parents and what they did. I try to pass it on."

SEE MORE IN THIS SERIES:

LI Volunteer Fighting Food Insecurity Knew Hunger As A Child