Volunteers anything but ‘retired’

Delta couple recognized for long service

Jim and Kay McBride have been married for almost 60 years and have collectively logged more than 13,000 volunteer hours of service to the Open Door organization in the Delta community. The couple were honored with the Joined Hearts of Giving Award in a ceremony at the Ohio Statehouse.

DELTA — Jim and Kay McBride have been on the move their entire married lives.

And the fellow volunteers running along side them at the Open Door of Delta continue to share the credit with every stride, even in the accolades from an award the couple received in Columbus on Friday as long-married volunteers.

“We are very proud of the award,” said Kay McBride. “But we told them the only way we would do it is on behalf of all of the volunteers here. There is no one [volunteer] that is more important than the other one.”

She and her husband, Jim, were presented Friday with the Joined Hearts in Giving Award, presented to the McBrides and four other Ohio couples in a ceremony at the Ohio Statehouse. Longtime volunteer Samuel Burnett of Toledo was also inducted into the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame, honored for his caregiving and safety work with seniors for 24 years.

The annual awards are presented by the Ohio Department of Aging.

The McBrides were on the board of directors for Delta Outreach, a food pantry, in 2003 when the board moved forward with a vision of moving all the community's nonprofits under one roof.

A vacant grocery store on Monroe Street appeared to be the answer: They started there with the food pantry and a thrift shop. Today, the Other Door of Delta Inc. is the nonprofit umbrella that houses the food pantry, thrift store, a Habitat for Humanity office, and transitional housing.

In 2009, with the help of volunteers from Toledo’s Ironworkers Local 55, the Open Door added a 5,800-square-foot, two-story expansion that houses a job and life-skills center. Last month, the organization affirmed its propensity for continual growth when it opened the “Other Door,” a thrift store that provides donated furniture and appliances at 325 Main St. in Delta.

Though “retired” for years — Jim McBride was the principal of Delta Middle School for decades and both were real estate agents for about 25 years — they volunteer 25 to 30 hours a week in the thrift store and the food pantry. Kay is secretary for the food pantry and thrift shop boards; Jim is on both boards and is chairman for Delta Outreach.

“We started with nothing. We had one big empty shell of a grocery store,” Mrs. McBride said. “It really has grown; we are proud of what we do here.”

The couple, who next year will be married 60 years, said outside of helping to keep the Open Door and Other Door afloat, they love to spend time with their family, two grown sons, four grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter, and are involved in their church and other extracurricular activities.

Sally Davies, director of the RSVP program, a national service program sponsored through the Area Office on Aging, which helps facilitate senior volunteer service, said Jim McBride has logged about 5,000 volunteer hours with the organization; Kay McBride, 8,200.

“They are just those sorts of folks who help any way they can,” Ms. Davies said. “Clearly we have hit gold with the McBrides.”

Contact Roberta Gedert at: rgedert@theblade.comor 419-724-6081.