Third-grader learns the value of volunteering from Grandpa

April 23, 2009 at 12:06a.m.

By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — Brooke Elizabeth Brienik is in many ways a typical 9-year-old.

She collects Webkinz pets, lots of Webkinz; plays a computer game, “Wizard 101,” with her friends; and likes to draw and paint.

Not so typically, she also volunteers at Youngstown’s Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic.

“I volunteer because it helps the veterans and the nurses. It’s for a good cause,” said the third-grade student at Lloyd Elementary School in Austintown, continuing to stuff envelops — one of her regular tasks at the clinic — while she talked.

“I think I might become what my grandpa is now,” she said.

“Grandpa” is Robert Brienik, Volunteer Services liaison at the Youngstown VA Clinic.

Brooke and her grandfather are among 149 volunteers who will be recognized for their service to veterans at today’s 2009 Volunteer Awards Ceremony at ITAM Post 3 at 115 Meridian Road. Registration is at 5:30 p.m.

Brooke was encouraged to begin volunteering at age 6 by her grandmother, Carol Brienik, who helped with peripheral-vision testing at the clinic.

Mrs. Brienik, who brought Brooke to the clinic in the summer, died of cancer March 10, leaving a huge void in Grandpa and Brooke’s hearts and lives.

“I liked to go to the park with her, and we would go to ... [White House Fruit Farm] to feed the fish,” said Brooke.

“They were buddies. They enjoyed each other,” said Brienik, tears welling in his eyes. “I bring her to the clinic now.”

Brooke, the daughter of Christian and Deborah Brienik, said she wants to become a veterinarian, or a flight nurse like her father, who works for Metropolitan Life Flight.

She will receive a 50-hour Youth Award at today’s recognition dinner. Actually, she has accumulated 70 volunteer hours over the last three years and is well on her way to reaching the 100-hour award level.

But for Brooke to catch her grandfather as a VA volunteer will take some doing.

Brienik, of Austintown, has logged 26,707 volunteer hours since he began with the VA in 1992 after a 37-year career with General Motors. Born and reared in Cleveland, he worked for GM there and then was transferred to GM Lordstown in 1966, where he was a plant specification analyst at the fabricating plant when he retired.

“Volunteering at the VA lets me serve my brother veterans,” said Brienik, who served in the Army Medical Corps from 1956 to 1958.

“It seems all veterans have the feeling of giving something back to their country. It is my way of repaying for the freedom me and my family have,” he said.

Brienik said the Youngstown VA Clinic volunteer office keeps volunteer records for the Youngstown, Warren, East Liverpool, Lorain and New Philadelphia clinics, and for a number of honor guard units that perform at funerals at the Western Reserve VA Cemetery in Rittman and at area cemeteries. Volunteers from those organizations will be among those recognized today.

He said volunteers perform a lot of simple tasks to take the burden off the paid staff.

One of the biggest jobs is making phone calls to remind veterans of their appointments. It has resulted in a drastic reduction in no-shows, he said.

Volunteers perform a number of tasks, including filing and other minor paperwork for staffers. Others operate the coffee cart, completely maintained through donations since September 1992. Men drive a van, donated by the American Legion Department of Ohio, to take veterans to appointments at the Wade Park Cleveland VA Hospital. Volunteers also organize fundraisers, such as spaghetti dinners and flea markets, and have an annual picnic for the veterans in the clinic parking lot, Brienik said.

He said the volunteer office has helped many veterans get medals for which they were eligible but had not received.

“There is nothing more satisfying. When the vets come in to show their medals, they are smiling ear to ear. That’s my paycheck,” Brienik said.

Today’s dinner is to recognize people who have reached certain levels of hours volunteered. The Youngstown VA Clinic has 350 volunteers on the roles from the various organizations for which it keeps records.

“Everybody has heroes. Those 350 are mine,” Brienik said.

alcorn@vindy.com