Lucy Fairweather is an entrepreneur, making her way in the world by dint of her creativity and persistence. She’s a marketing consultant who specializes in helping her clients show up in Google searches. Before marketing, and right after graduating from Cal, she ran her own subscription gift box business. She called it Fair Ivy and had tens of thousands of subscribers. Lucy prided herself on promoting the work of hundreds of American artists and craftspeople.
Once a week she comes to the Mary Isaak Center to organize our refrigerator and pantry. That helps Chef Janin keep track of inventory and plan her menus. Lucy arrives and clears out the walk-in, gathering up the produce that can no longer be used. She dumps the old stuff in a bin for a local pig farmer to collect. Then, she helps to sort and put away a massive truckload of donations from Trader Joe’s. Then, it’s on to organizing shipments to the local food pantry. After that, it’s whatever needs doing–cleaning, chopping, pot-scrubbing.
Lucy’s much younger than most of our volunteers, so she gets called on a lot for lifting and toting.
“It’s a good workout,” she says. She’d originally planned to cook for COTS, but decided sorting was for her. “I like cleansing a mess. I like leaving things better than when I found them. When I leave, the job is complete and I can feel good.”
She’s always cared about homelessness. But encountering some people with “horrifying attitudes toward the homeless” prompted her to get involved. “That pushed me into wanting to do the opposite,” Lucy says.
Many days, she works alongside our residents. Working on the same task together makes conversations easier. “It doesn’t feel stilted or awkward. Sometimes we’ll talk about the strawberries. Sometimes they talk about their lives and how they ended up there,” Lucy says. “It’s really interesting and heartbreaking.”
“It puts a face on what a lot of people consider a ‘them,'” Lucy says. “Working with people shows you it’s not ‘them.’ It’s ‘us.’ They are just a less fortunate version of ‘us.'”
When she’s not volunteering or working, Lucy’s using her hands to make things–in the garden, in the kitchen or at her craft table.
Her advice to people thinking about volunteering: “Try it. You can find a job that works for you.”
Thank you, Lucy!
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