Editor’s note: This is part of a series of articles spotlighting area volunteers and their organizations. Click to Nominate a top volunteer.
“I joke that my gift is the gift of energy,” says Renee Delzeith. “I move fast, I talk fast, I walk fast.”
Delzeith could be described as a super volunteer at St. Stephen Catholic Church in Hinesville, where administrative secretary Christine Fernandez says she serves several times a week and is involved in a number of ministries for the more than 600 parishioners.
“If I were to describe her in one word, it would be giving,” Fernandez said.
Delzeith is head of the special events committee, which is in charge of most receptions and functions, (First Communion, Confirmation, weddings, baptisms). She has been a Faith Formation teacher for the youth group and Confirmation class for approximately 10 years. She also helps with a support group, premarital classes and marriage counseling. If someone is ill or housebound, she is the first to bring food and offers to run errands.
“She is open to anything, and has a good spirit,” Fernandez added.
When she’s not at her day job as an ultrasound technician at Winn Army Community Hospital, Delzeith, with help from her husband Douglas, a deacon at the church, are busy volunteering, and she is quick to give praise to others who assist.
There is a good corps (about 12 people) who are active on many of their committees and projects, Delzeith said. “We have a great parish here with a group of people who give their time and talents,” she added.
However, “It’s the same challenge any church is facing,” she said. “Less than 10 percent do the work, 90 percent sit in the pews.”
Delzeith acknowledged, “We live in hard times and some people come to church to get something, and not necessarily come to give.
“I think we need to get this generation to recognize (church) is like your home,” Delzeith added. “You have to pay bills. You have to get people to come in and do the work. You can give all the money you want, but if people don’t put it in action, it’s no good.”
What drives her? “Service. Just service,” she said. “Doug and I have a picture of Mother Teresa sitting right in front of us in our kitchen and it says faith in action is love, and love in action is service.”
She said if she could choose Mother Teresa as her saint, “that is who I would. I quote her all the time.”
Delzeith, who has two adult children, Kathleen and Sarah, with Douglas, and eight grandchildren, added, “We all have gifts and talents, we just need to figure out what they are. Our job is to help people find their gifts and talents.”