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NEA Today, Sep 1998

Even if she has never met you, you can count on Betsy Townsend for a kind word and caring thought. Through phone calls and greeting cards, the retired Michigan school custodian reaches out to at least three ill, shut-in, or grieving people a day.

"I spend at least two hours a day doing cards or calling people, just checking up on them and seeing how they're doing," says Townsend, who has sent hundreds of cards in the past year.

To find out who needs a word of encouragement, she combs the obituary page and stays in touch with nursing homes and senior centers. "People give me some of

the cards, and I buy some," Townsend explains, but most are homemade, recycled from bits of old cards by seniors at a center where she volunteers. Townsend always includes a personal note in the cards, along with her phone number.

"I get so many replies back from people, saying how nice it is to be remembered," says Townsend, who retired in 1988 after 23 years with Grosse Pointe Schools.

And that's payment enough for her time. "I get a good feeling, knowing that I helped out, that I made someone else feel good," she says.