In a home created for children who need a safe place to stay, Nancy Lehtman has found where she belongs. Children show up at Saint Louis Crisis Nursery for 24- to 48-hour visits in need of attention and love. Lehtman has more than enough to give.
After 34 years running her own clothing store, Distinctions, Lehtman is retired and giving back. “We all get wrapped up in our own worlds, and it’s easy not to think about the part of the community that is truly disadvantaged,” she says. “But I think everyone should give back. It’s how I was raised. This has opened up a whole new chapter of my life.”
Lehtman joins a large number of retirees volunteering throughout the St. Louis area at various nonprofits, food pantries, medical centers and schools. While some seniors continue along the same lines of what they did professionally, others veer off into much different directions. Dr. Bob Hill has done a little of both.
Hill, who spent 42 years as a doctor, volunteers at Casa de Salud, a medical clinic on Chouteau Avenue, to offer care to uninsured and underinsured patients, primarily immigrants and refugees. He also spends most every week volunteering with Habitat for Humanity Saint Louis as part of the Wednesday Crew, a group of 15 to 20 retired men who work on houses. “At Habitat, there’s a very broad range of prior occupations, ranging from the guy who was working a construction trade to those who worked for Pfizer, Busch and Ralston,” Hill says. “The people have all kinds of interests, as well as other volunteer work. Lunchtimes are fun. We sit around for 30 minutes and shoot the breeze, talking about politics or anything we want.”
The men all have one common connection, though—a desire to give back in their community. “I don’t think you go from working 12 to 14 hours a day in your professional career to just shutting it off in retirement,” Hill says. “It doesn’t happen. When I retired, I went on a two-week vacation, the longest vacation I had taken in 20 years! When I got back, I was ready for something to do.”
For Lehtman, Crisis Nursery is even affording her the opportunity to do something that had always interested her. She studied elementary and early childhood education in college. “I used it a little but then got involved in the store and fashion,” Lehtman says. “Now, I get to use it and give back. I love volunteering because I absolutely love interacting with children. And at Crisis Nursery, they want you to interact. Mainly just to love the kids.”
Hill and Lehtman suggest people find volunteering opportunities by talking with friends or looking online. Almost all volunteer work requires a lot of paperwork, and sometimes even drug tests. Hill says it took a year before he got the proper credentials for Casa de Salud. It took months for Lehtman to be cleared to volunteer at Crisis Nursery.
Despite the preliminary work, they both say the rewards of helping others are worth it. “I figured it would be a waste of 40 years of training experience to not do volunteer work in the medical field,” says Hill. “But I also wanted to do something other than that. Habitat is a whole different set of skills. Even though I knew some plumbing and carpentry before, I’ve learned a number of things through my service.”
Pictured: Jim Kennedy and Dr. Bob Hill, members of the Habitat for Humanity Wednesday Crew
Photo: Bill Barrett