ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, November 26, 1996 TAG: 9611260109
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Good Neighbors Fund
SOURCE: BETSY BIESENBACH STAFF WRITER
If it hadn't been for his wife, Mary Carol, Bill Wood never would have volunteered to work at Roanoke Area Ministries. And it is because of her that he is still working there, two years after her death from pancreatic cancer.
Mary Carol, who worked the intake desk at RAM's day shelter for the homeless, was "dedicated to the work," he said. Her interest in RAM was "really intense." So, when he comes into the office every Thursday to answer phones and verify applications, it is partly in memory of her.
But Wood's involvement with RAM goes even deeper than that. His eldest son, Bill, who was a writer and a teacher, was employed by RAM as an assistant shelter manager until he, too, died from pancreatic cancer just a year after his mother.
Despite coming from a well-to-do background, Mary Carol was "always interested in the underdog. It was in her nature," Wood said, and Bill Jr. "had the same inclination."
Wood said he is not quite as soft-hearted as his wife and son were. Part of his job is to "try to read people" when they call asking for help. "There's a difference between talking to them on the phone and an in-person interview," he said.
Anyone seeking emergency financial assistance has to apply in person. Sometimes, he said, people who sound very sincere and very needy on the phone can't back up any of their information during the screening process.
The hardest part of his job is not being able to promise help, he said. Most of the people who call are telling the truth, he said, but no matter how desperate someone might sound, no one is guaranteed a grant until after the screening.
Those who are helped "are the ones [for whom] we can see a bright light down the road," he said. Some of the others "could help themselves with a little extra effort."
Wood has another son and a daughter, but they don't live in town. "It's one reason I stay busy with volunteer work," he said.
Although he likes golf and played often after he retired in 1983, "I wasn't really accomplishing anything," he said.
When he is not at RAM, Wood volunteers with the Good Samaritan Hospice, which helped see his wife and son through their final illnesses.
He acts as a companion to terminally ill patients and their caregivers, doing what he can to make their last days comfortable.
Checks made payable to the Good Neighbors Fund should be mailed to The Roanoke Times, P.O. Box 1951, Roanoke 24008.
Names - but not donation amounts - of contributing businesses, individuals and organizations, as well as memorial and honorific designations, will be listed in the newspaper. Those requesting that their names not be used will remain anonymous. If no preference is stated, the donor's name will be listed.
LENGTH: Medium: 58 linesby CNB