DIANE MAKAR MURPHY Lions' aid helps to keep Goodwill a roaring success

It was a plot suitable for "Law and DISorder" -- Goodwill Inc.'s janitorial van was stolen from its parking lot, leaving its six-man crew without tools and transportation minutes before work was to begin.
With more than 20 contracts to satisfy, including the federal courthouse in Youngstown, the crew of employees being helped back to their feet by Goodwill scrounged cleaning supplies, mops, brooms and a 26-foot Goodwill truck and carried on.
For a month, the crew made do with their makeshift arrangement, but that wasn't the worst of it. Periodically, they spotted the stolen van. When it passed them in Youngstown, cell phones hummed and the police responded, but the van escaped.
"There goes our van!" was a not uncommon shout from the frustrated crew shambling around town in the big truck with a car behind.
And the pain was felt beyond the janitorial staff, because the missing van usually transported people to therapy and to Goodwill sites for maintenance work.
Finally caught
Finally, the stolen vehicle was spotted in an Auto Zone parking lot in Liberty. A phone call brought the police, and a chase ensued. The distraught Goodwill workers watched their prized van bounce over speed bumps and around corners before it was stopped and its driver apprehended.
After that, the van wasn't the same. Its shocks were shot, among other things. And although the outside of the van seemed to look OK, its new owner had redecorated its interior with spray paint and furniture.
In fact, despite repairs made with the insurance money, the door fell off a month later.
Enter the heroes of our saga -- the Lions Club of Youngstown.
Typically, the Lions contribute to Goodwill's work with the blind, continuing with a challenge by Helen Keller decades ago to help the visually impaired. But when Lion Mike McBride called offering help, the request wasn't for capital improvements to benefit the blind, but for a new van. The Lions Club agreed.
"It would have been a good story for [the TV show] 'COPS,'" said Melissa Pearce, Goodwill marketing director. "Especially with the happy ending."
Van-shopping
The Lions gave the Goodwill employees a budget, and through some serious bargain shopping, they found a 1998 Dodge Caravan with "relatively low mileage" and double doors, even better than their original vehicle.
"The old one was a stretch," explained Al Slabe, Goodwill operations director. "It was a little bulky, but this is perfect for when we use the van for extra things."
According to Mike Bosela, "It's a testament to Lions Club that they were willing to partner with us not just for vision."
With group's help
Bosela should know. As coordinator of Goodwill's Youngstown Radio Reading Service, he has benefited greatly from the Lions' previous donations.
Bosela heads a service designed to bring the news to about 1,000 visually impaired listeners in Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and southern Ashtabula counties and Western Pennsylvania.
Readers, under Bosela's direction, record local and national newspapers, sports news, births, marriages, obituaries, poetry and more.
The topics are aired via Time Warner Cable Channel 15 and broadcast direct to special one-channel crystal radio receivers distributed by Goodwill.
The Lions "have a history of helping us," Bosela said. "Back in '97, they bought us a new console board. ... They also bought us receivers that we passed out to listeners."
He also credits the Lions Club with helping the Goodwill broadcast studio begin its update from analog to digital equipment.
The broadcasts, courtesy of the Lions and Goodwill's staff and volunteer readers, reach people in homes, nursing homes and senior centers 365 days a year.
The van is just one more indication of a great partnership between Goodwill and the Lions Club of Youngstown.
murphy@vindy.com