Dee

In my work, I've learned to always check what people eat. So many people eat horribly. A pop tart washed down with diet soda may pass for breakfast. Fast food or convenience store nachos might be lunch followed by frozen pizza for dinner. All you have to do is peek at other people's shopping carts at the grocery check-out to get an idea what passes for nutrition in a lot of families. And if someone I work with comes in looking awful, it's not unusual to find that they have been living on junk recently.

That said, I confess that I am a bona fide card-carrying hypocrite. Last week I bought a box of Captain Crunch. This box of high fructose covered sugar nuggets was not for me. Even worse, it was for the Fire Department's Christmas food drive.

The box of Captain Crunch was my tribute to Dee. This amazing woman was for years the force behind the cub scout program in our area. She was the power behind the local toys for tots program, a bell ringer for the Salvation Army and a key member of the annual food drives. For several years I helped her sort and pack up toys for children referred by social service agencies. I always found her alone at the church Sunday school room where she worked. A few others like me would help for an hour here and there, but mostly it was just Dee going through the donated toys trying to fill a bag so each child would have some special gift and a little surprise or two. There was a boom box playing Christmas music and the unfailingly cheerful Dee was always delighted to have a little help and someone to talk to while she worked.

Every Christmas, Dee asked that her cub scouts bring in a box of their favorite cereal to give to the food drive. This was a kid to kid gift she explained. Soon boxes of Apple Jacks, Frosted Flakes and Fruit Loops piled up and eventually made their way into the Christmas boxes. As a nutrition conscious mom, I would never have donated this junk. I would pick a big box of oatmeal to give to the needy instead. But deep down, I smiled at Dee's idea. I had visions of some happy kid on Christmas morning digging into a big bowl of sugar coated smackers, images which were no doubt generated by TV advertising. Each year he was a scout, son was the one to pick out the box of cereal that he took in for the food drive.

Dee moved away from here many years ago. I think of her each Christmas. No doubts she is now working quietly in another Sunday school room somewhere. Dee, this Captain Crunch is for you!