No such thing as holiday for Mobile Meals volunteer
Saint James' member, Fritz Massaquoi, is featured in Knoxville New-Sentinel for his ministry to the community.
Pulling a small gray cart laden with food, 80-year-old Fritz Massaquoi stepped on to the elevator at Summit Towers on Thursday morning. On the cart he carried a large red cooler, an insulated bag with hot meals and a box with small bags of fruit. He had meals for nine people.
He stopped first at the apartment of 67-year-old Dorothy Chesney.
A stroke left her unable to prepare food as she once did. She's from Knoxville and has been at Summit Towers a little more than a year, she said.
"Born and raised here," said Chesney. "I'm a Tennessee gal."
Massaquoi, who also lives in Summit Towers, is a volunteer for the Knoxville-Knox County Community Action Committee's Mobile Meals program. For more than 10 years, he's delivered hot meals once a week to fellow residents who are unable to get out or cook for themselves, and Thanksgiving Day he did not break from his routine.
"Every Thursday I do it," he said. "And every Thanksgiving, and every Christmas."
After taking care of Chesney, he delivered meals to Charles and Gladys Newcomb, who watched a Thanksgiving Day parade on television. The walls of the couple's apartment were covered with pictures, but there probably wasn't room enough for photos of all their grandchildren.
"We got a whole mob of 'em," said Gladys Newcomb, 89. "Fifty-eight, I think."
They didn't estimate the number of great-grandchildren, however.
"Lord, I don't know," said Charles Newcomb, 93.
The Mobile Meals program serves more than 800 meals daily in Knoxville and Knox County. The program has 950 volunteers. They could use more volunteers throughout the year, said Barbara Monty, a media director for the program.
Mobile Meals had 408 meals to deliver on Thanksgiving Day. The number is a lot lower than normal because many people who usually receive the meals were with family and friends on the holiday.
Massaquoi was one of 100 volunteers working Thanksgiving Day. He has lived at Summit Towers for 12 years.
Civil war in Liberia brought Massaquoi to Knoxville 16 years ago. Massaquoi was born in Hamburg, Germany, reared in Liberia, Africa, and received his undergraduate and graduate degrees in education in the United States. He even found time to dance on Broadway.
He worked in Stockholm, Sweden, and eventually returned to Liberia, which he eventually fled because of the war. Since then, he's been in East Tennessee. He is a self-taught painter and textile artist.
He is modest about his volunteer work.
"Some people need help," Massaquoi said. "I think you should give help when you can."
By DARREN DUNLAP, Knoxvilee News-Sentinetl, Friday November 23, 2006.
Dunlap may be reached at 342-6334 or by email: dunlapd@knews.com