3 Cheers To 90-Year-Old Volunteer
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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A local soup kitchen is serving with that extra touch, thanks to a 90-year-old volunteer: Reba Poole.
Twice a week, Reba Poole volunteers at her church's soup kitchen, but first, she comes in hours early to serve the other volunteers breakfast!
Volunteer Susan Neavil laughed as she said, "I call her the living Energizer Bunny."
Reba said to her, she just likes giving. "It keeps you alive."
Born in 1928, Reba was one of 11 children. She was the first to go to college.
She said her mother always told her, "Be the best you can."
"Just believe in yourself," Reba said. "And I, as I tell myself, 'Who's gorgeous? I'm gorgeous.'"
"You're gorgeous, I love that!" said CBS3's Chandler Lutz.
"Well, my mother say, 'If you don't think good about yourself, why would somebody else?'"
Reba brought that confidence to her career in the Philadelphia school district and became a pioneer in teaching sexual health, winning numerous awards.
"This is one thing I've been so proud of, to be elected by your peers, because they didn't play," Reba said.
Reba retired from the school district in 1991, but soup kitchen director Robert O'Ferrall says Reba remains a teacher at heart.
"Reba has that individual part," Robert said. "She sees every client that comes in as one of her students."
"And the clients are wonderful," Reba said. "They are so interesting to talk to."
Mondays and Wednesdays, Reba comes to Tindley Temple United Methodist Church on Broad Street to check in clients at the soup kitchen.
What does that mean to her?
"It's living. It's living," Reba said. "It's doing what I want to do."
Fellow volunteer Susan was so impressed with her, she nominated Reba for 3 Cheers "because i think she is such an amazing and special lady, and she puts love in every single thing she does."
So here's 3 Cheers to Reba Poole for serving love family-style.
