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Poland woman brings community together through charitable acts
POLAND
Lisa Weimer insists that she is not a remarkable person.
Members of the Poland community, however, would disagree.
“It’s a wonderful community to live in, and she brings it together,” said Renee Zuzan. “Lisa is just the most selfless woman there is. ... Those of us who have received blessings from her just want to shout it from the rooftops.”
Zuzan is just one of many beneficiaries of Weimer’s acts of kindness. When Zuzan had surgery on her spine earlier this month, Weimer arranged for community members to bring dinner to Zuzan and her family every day for two weeks.
Weimer, 41, says she organizes six to eight charitable projects each year and estimates that she raises about $10,000 a year for the various causes she takes up — and she’s been doing it for as long as she can remember.
“I’m always working on something,” she said.
“My mom was a single mom until I was 11 years old. She taught me the true meaning of selflessness,” Weimer, who has two kids of her own, said of why she does what she does. “One of the only things you can control in this world is yourself ... [and] I can make a difference.”
Just recently, Weimer’s projects have included several fundraisers for local families in need of help and a back-to-school clothing drive for kids in Youngstown and Warren city schools.
“I did wonderful this year. I had 35 bags — stuffed. Huge, lawn-size bags,” she said of the clothing drive.
Now she is collecting winter coats for kids in need and preparing to bring Christmas presents and food to Poland families who cannot afford a big Christmas celebration.
Weimer said she has done the coat drive for about 10 years and usually collects between 50 and 75 coats for kids in Youngstown and Warren.
Another project she did this year was a fundraiser for the Klase family of Poland.
“We had a fire in our home in January. [Lisa] put together a bake sale for my daughter because [the fire] was in her bedroom,” said Liz Klase. “We were able to replace some of her stuff.”
“[Lisa] just has a heart of gold,” Klase said. “She’d give you the shirt off her back if she had to.”
Weimer also has organized many fundraisers for local families dealing with significant medical expenses.
A pepperoni-roll fundraiser Weimer did in October raised about $1,000 each for Lisa Sikora and Julianna Stefek, two Poland moms who are battling breast cancer.
Sikora said the money will help her buy Christmas presents for her kids.
“Lisa is the most caring, giving person I’ve ever met in my life,” she said. “And she doesn’t have to know the people to do good things for them.”
Weimer, however, is not interested in the recognition (although she wouldn’t mind being on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”), and insists that the community she lives in makes it all possible.
“This community rocks,” she said. “It takes our entire village.”
And the community could not be happier to have her, Zuzan said.
“We’re so thankful that she’s ours here in Poland,” she said.