Drum roll, please! Introducing to you: OJ Gilstrap as our Volunteer of the Second Quarter for 2024! OJ began delivering meals in 2019 and has been with us every Tuesday for the past five years. He is a quiet fella, but a force to be sure. He is quite a team player and has been known to often drive two routes in ONE morning or on other days when needed!
OJ’s quiet ways speak volumes for us. He LOVES his recipients, not just those on his own route, but other routes on which he is a substitute driver. We love to hear OJ’s laugh when he arrives to pick up his coolers. It is no wonder the recipients love him so. He is a gentle soul with a giant heart.
In the second quarter, his heart was the biggest I have ever seen. We had to make a few significant changes to our meal delivery routes because some grew too large for drivers to deliver. When routes are significantly large, it takes longer to deliver the healthy meals we provide, thus causing food safety concerns for our recipients. Many of our drivers were affected by these changes. One of the changes I was requested to make affected OJ, causing him to learn a completely new route, meet new recipients and not see the recipients he has served for the past five years. Upon asking OJ to make this specific change so that another volunteer could keep their recipients, he graciously accepted the challenge.
The first day he drove the new route, he returned to our office all smiles. This is the definition of putting others first. OJ told me recently, “The greatest reward is when the recipients say thank you and knowing that I am helping to make a difference.” OJ, you not only make a difference in the lives of our recipients, but you do the same for your fellow volunteers. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts!