Volunteer: It Takes a Village

Dave Hall, a Carroll Lutheran Village resident, is a serial volunteer and takes pride in helping others. In 2018, the Maryland Senior Citizens Hall of Fame inducted him for his work at Habitat for Humanity Carroll County, an organization he volunteered with for 14 years; cleaning and repairing braille machines for blind students and The IMAGE Center.

If you ask Hall what he enjoys about volunteering at The IMAGE Center he will say the look on a recipient’s face is priceless. The IMAGE Center is dedicated to creating a learning and thinking environment that challenges concepts of what people with disabilities can do.

At the IMAGE Center, Hall serves on a committee that evaluates device requests, accompanies occupational and physical therapists on client visits to determine whether a request can be approved, and designs and constructs custom tricycles and bicycles for children with special needs in his garage and the CLV’s woodshop.

Hall built a tricycle for a teen in Westminster a few years ago. The teen was born with spina bifida – a birth defect that affects the spine. The teen used a wheelchair and could not pedal a bicycle with his legs. Hall and a group of engineers with the IMAGE Center built a hand pedaled tricycle for the teen. After constructing a wooden prototype, the team assembled the tricycle using many parts they found at a local junkyard. The team at Ridge Engineering welded the parts.

Recently, Hall arranged for the delivery of an electronic hospital bed to a family in Hampstead, MD. The recipient has cerebral palsy. His weight is a challenge for caregivers to lift him into bed. When Hall heard about this, he and a team of CLV residents and team members helped get the hospital bed to the Hampstead family.

It takes people like Hall, who volunteer their time, talent or expertise to make a positive difference in someone’s life. It takes more than one person – it takes a village.

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