GAIL WHITE When it comes to meals, volunteers deliver

I was cruising around with Dorothy and Marge.
"Once in a while we get to talking and I forget where I'm going," Marge says with a laugh.
As if she said the words on cue, Dorothy nudges her friend of almost 40 years, "Right here."
"I know. I know," Marge says, pulling into a driveway. (From my vantage point in the back seat it did look like, for a moment, she might drive on by.)
"I'm the runner," Dorothy says, getting out of the car and opening the rear door to grab an aluminum container of hot ham, potatoes and green beans. "She's the driver." As she closes the door, she hurriedly says, "That's because I'm younger than she is."
Marge lets out a little huff from the front seat.
Marge Wise of Columbiana has been a volunteer, delivering food for the Columbiana area Meals on Wheels for 18 years. Dorothy Posey joined her as "the runner" nearly five years ago. Together, every Tuesday, these two ladies deliver between six and nine meals to local individuals who are homebound.
While Meals on Wheels provides good, hearty meals -- both a hot meal and a sack lunch -- the program provides much more than nutrition.
Both Marge and Dorothy have experienced the shock of delivering a meal and finding the resident in an emergency health situation.
"Once, I found a man on the kitchen floor all curled up," Marge remembers. She called emergency and a relative of the resident.
"They know we're coming," Marge explains. "So some of them will unlock their door so we can just come in and set the food down. We usually knock, open the door and yell: 'Yoo-hoo!'"
Checking up
"We check on them," says Colleen Welton, program coordinator for the Columbiana Meals on Wheels program. "Sometimes they will forget about a doctor's appointment or an appointment will run long. When there is no answer at the door, the drivers get concerned so I will call."
"Or else you worry about it all day," says Sandy Boston, a Friday Meals on Wheels driver.
"I get attached to the people on my route," she confesses. "I just love them."
Sandy has been known to deliver hearty conversation with her meals.
"What's the longest you have ever talked with someone," I asked.
"You kidding me?" Sandy says with a boisterous laugh. Her deliveries have been known to last longer than the meals. "Sometimes, we're the only ones they see all day."
Other times, drivers find a few too many "visitors" when they deliver.
"One place we deliver has a horse roaming in the front yard," Colleen says, laughing. "I deliver to that house myself."
The horse has been known to sneak up behind her as she knocks on the door. Last week, it tried to give her a good-bye smooch. It slurped all the way down her car window instead.
Nearly every community has a service for the elderly and homebound such as Meals on Wheels. The names are different but the purpose is the same -- to provide healthy meals and helping hands.
Funding
The Columbiana area Meals on Wheels is funded through the United Way and local contributions from churches, organizations and individuals.
Funding can vary from community to community, but one aspect remains the same.
"The drivers are the ones who make it work," says Rosalie Kurtz, a member of Columbiana area Meals on Wheels board of directors. "They are the heroes."
Of course, the drivers don't see it that way.
"It's just something we can do to help the community," Marge says with simple humility.
"We could use more volunteers to do this," she says.
Looking at her longtime friend, Marge teases, "Dorothy and I are getting to the age where we might need these lunches!"
Something tells me these two ladies will be cruising for years to come.
gwhite@vindy.com