This month’s gratification post is for Barbara Brashier. Each month we thank an individual, business and/or organization who supports our efforts. It felt fitting to honor Barbara, who sadly passed away last November, because we know that she would be so excited to volunteer this month during our March Madness Tournament, which has had to take two year hiatus due to the pandemic. Barbara participated in our morning senior walking program for years and then joined us officially through the Milford Senior Center tax-relief program in 2018, as a volunteer during our summer camp and after school hours, and completed over 130 hours for us. Barbara started with helping us monitor space and also with helping us serve free dinners and snacks to our participants. As we grew to know and love Barbara, we learned about some of her interests, including improv and that she was an avid basketball fan, but especially loved following the college March Madness tournament. Barbara then began to not only help us run an improv program for the kids but she also volunteered with scorekeeping for our March Madness tournament, which historically has had over 80 youth participants. She also loved going over college games, if there were any upsets and her picks throughout the month with our staff and kids! Barbara also volunteered at events that we had like our Thanksgiving Dinner, Holiday Party and end of the year party for the after school program.
Some of our favorite memories though were ironically over the pandemic. One dream of Barbara’s was to have us take her on a walk behind her house to see some of the Milford quarries. Milford TV joined us, as part of our virtual programming, as we took a short walk on the bike path and trails! We also visited her over the first year and half to drop off care packages and even paint her nails! The best memory though was when we surprised her with a birthday parade with the Special Ops officers on her 84th birthday! She was so happy and surprised! Barbara will be missed, especially as we start a program that she would have been the first to offer her help with, March Madness. Thank you Barbara…we miss you! For video of the birthday parade, click here.