A Generous Heart

A few weeks ago we attended as guests the board meeting of a small charitable foundation in Boston. It was its last formal meeting, because under the terms of the founder's will and the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the trust must be disbanded by next June. At this meeting, the final disbursement of funds was decided.

One of the speakers was Donna Suskawicz, who had come to thank the foundation for its support of the Irving K. Zola Center for Persons with Disabilities at Brigham House, 20 Hartford Street, Newton Highlands, MA 02461. Indeed, although the foundation had been granting the center a relatively small sum each year, it had been the center's principal source of support.

Ms. Suskawicz is a woman with a disability whose personal journey made her painfully aware of the special needs of persons with disabilities, many of them very poor. (Her experiences with disability are included in the book Working Against Odds by Mary Grimley Mason.) She decided to take practical steps to help.

At first, she collected empty plastic bottles, redeemed them for pennies per bottle, and used the funds to buy pizza for those she knew were in need. Eventually, with help from the Gorin Foundation, small grants from local banks and groups and private donations, she leased a house in Newton, a Boston suburb, which she named in memory of Brandeis professor Irving K. Zola (1935-1994), who specialized in medical sociology and actively promoted the rights of persons with disabilities.

The Zola Center (Brigham House) is a drop-in community center open Saturday afternoons, a welcoming place where persons with disabilities can meet one another and socialize. (Saturday is Ms. Suskawicz's only free day, since she works full time at her job during the week and on Sundays drives to New Hampshire to assist her elderly parents.) The center offers computers with internet access, a large-screen TV with HD, DVD and CD players, a sewing machine, pool table, and meeting room. The center also operates a food pantry. Local bakeries, restaurants, and supermarkets, including the branches of national chains such as Whole Foods, donate food, which Ms. Suskawicz and other volunteers collect and distribute.

The center also offers computer lessons, meditation classes, reiki treatments, shows by artists with disabilities, concerts highlighting musicians with disabilities, lectures by authors with disabilities, a support group for women with disabilities, help in writing resumes, and an annual Christmas party, particularly welcomed by those without families nearby.

In addition, it encourages persons with disabilities to pursue ham radio operation for emergency communication and as a hobby, offering, in cooperation with the Boston Amateur Radio Club, a "License in a Weekend" workshop to prepare for obtaining an FCC radio license. Under a grant from Avon Products, the center offered full scholarships to women with disabilities to participate in the workshop and to purchase radio equipment, a program which Ms. Suskawicz presented at the United Nations International Forum on the Status of Women.

The foundation will make its final grant to the center in December. Thereafter, Ms. Suskawicz must secure other sources for its support. Rent for the house is the principal expense, since the center has no employees, with all the work performed by volunteers. The Irving K. Zola Center is a non-profit 501(c) corporation, contributions to which are eligible for a federal tax deduction. They may be made payable to Brigham Community House/Zola Center and sent to Brigham House, c/o Donna Suskawicz, 1860 Commonwealth Avenue, Brighton, MA 02135-6002 or to Donna Suskawicz, Zola Center, 20 Hartford Street, Newton Highlands, MA 02461.

Donna Suskawicz shows us that we don't have to have a personal fortune in order to help repair the world. She put into action the notion that the needs of others become our spiritual obligation. May we take her example to heart.