Longtime volunteer hopes someone will take over her duties

Annie Hall says the fear of crime prevents people from volunteering.

By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — What was meant to be a short-term visit to the city has turned into nearly four decades of volunteerism and community service to people living in tvhe area.

Annie Hall, 76, a longtime community volunteer in the city, has retired from her many volunteer efforts here but still cannot seem to stop offering her volunteer services.

She wants to slow down but said she cannot do that until someone comes forward to continue the work she will leave behind.

“I retired three weeks ago but can’t find anyone to take the job. I will stay on until they find someone. I enjoy what I do and my mother always said if you enjoy what you do, keep doing it,” she said.

Difficulty in finding people to become involved with volunteer work such as block watches is not surprising, Hall noted. She said most people refuse to get involved with such efforts for one reason.

“They are afraid. They are afraid to get involved anymore because of the way crime is. When we started, we had 82 active block watches, now it is closer to 10,” she said.

Hall transferred her job with Robert Hall Clothing Co. from New York to the Youngstown area in 1969 so she could help care for her mother. Her plan was to stay long enough to see her mother well and close the Youngstown department store, which had already been slated to be shut down.

“After a while, I just figured I would stay and get a job here. I went to work at Sheet and Tube in 1971 as a security guard,” she said. “When I was working at Sheet and Tube, they started the block watches, so I founded the one on my street and became the president.”

Leading the community block watch effort would prove to be too little in the giving department for Hall. Then-Mayor Patrick Ungaro and former police Chief Randall Wellington soon appointed Hall to oversee all the block watches in the city.

Hall was eventually appointed to handle the city’s “National Night Out” efforts in the mid 1980s. Hall has continues her work with the block watches today.

This time of year has proved to be a particularly good time for Hall to meet the children living in the communities she has helped keep watch over. For the last 17 years, Hall and a group of additional volunteers have taken several city police cars to neighborhoods and housing developments in the city and Campbell to pass out candy to waiting young people on Halloween.

“I would rather they do that than have them walking the streets,” she said.

Hall is involved in passing out more to eat than just candy. She volunteers at the Gleaners Food Bank on Pyatt Street. Hall also distributes food and clothes at various times of the month from a building she uses at the corner of Oak and Fruit streets in the city.

The clothing and food giveaways have been taking place for about 17 years.

“People were so in need of things,” she said. “I started asking people if they had any clothes they didn’t need and told them to bring them to me. That’s how I started giving out clothes. Eventually I started giving out food at the end of the month when people run low.”

Various businesses and charitable organizations help supply the food for distribution, Hall said.

jgoodwin@vindy.com