The Record,
(
KAMANA SHRESTHA,
STAFF Published: July 17, 2010
'THE MORE YOU
GIVE, THE MORE YOU GET BACK'
Jim Brawley ‘39 was born a child of
the Great Depression, and his family struggled to make ends meet. But there always
were people who helped, he recalls. It was a lesson in common humanity he's
been applying successfully in the 85 years since, notably including work with
Mother Teresa's nuns at a battered women's shelter.
"Just working with the poor people
was a real eye-opener for me -- and a reminder that I have been through this,
too," says the Westwood retiree.
After a career in sales, he'd suffered a
heart attack in 1981 that proved an epiphany -- "The Lord must have spared
me for a reason," he says, and he jumped into charitable efforts like the
bathroom cleaning and soup kitchen work at the shelter.
"What I learned from working with
these women that dedicated their lives to helping people in need was the great
need that we have to reach out to people in need," he says.
Today, those thoughts flourish in a drive
he started some three decades ago, collecting bags of clothing and bringing
them to St. Columba, a church in
"I didn't think I would last. I just
took it one day at a time," he says. But that initial one-man operation
has expanded to about 50 volunteers from his church, St. Andrew's, and more
than 400,000 pounds of clothes, shoes and other items donated yearly.
Considered the grandfather of the
congregation, Brawley also has been responsible for welcoming Hispanic
immigrants into town since the early 1990s, arranging a Spanish Mass at the
church as well as English classes. Some of them are among his volunteers now.
"I reached out because the Lord told
me to," he says. "The more you give, the more you get back,
really."
And he notes he isn't the only one with
that ideal: "Just the fact that we get 50 people to volunteer says a lot.
A lot of those people need charity themselves, but they still come to give
their time."
The collection bin outside of the church
is emptied daily, but always refills -- sometimes to overflowing, says Brawley.
He's still spry enough to drive the couple
of blocks to the church daily to oversee packing donations trucked out once a
month to charities and organizations.
Gently, he walks the basement hallway and
says his hellos to the line of volunteers folding and packing clothes.
"I am here because I love doing
it," Brawley says. "I come in and straighten things out, make up
some boxes for them, put coats in the hanger, little things," he adds.
Donations cover the $200 to $1,500 cost of
the trucks that bring the clothes to a thrift shop in
He notes that he has never had to ask for
money to help pay for the charitable work's overhead.
"It just comes in," he says.
"I just think people know something is being done with the money and it's
worthwhile."
And as he considers his life, he is
content with how it has played out.
"I am a really happy man. I have a
good family. I don't have money, but I don't have problems, either."
Jim began collecting clothes out of
his church 30 years ago. He now has 50 volunteers helping.
JIM BRAWLEY ‘39