Part-time helper grants full impact

Dave Finkel spent a career running hospitals. Now he delivers meals to the needy and elderly, comforts the dying and reads stories to first-graders.

He still is a director of a company that sells equipment and services to hospitals, but most of his day is spent helping others.

"Volunteering," he says, "frankly, I enjoy the hell out of it."

While he spends 15 to 20 hours a week at his salaried job, Finkel says he devotes up to 25 hours a week volunteering for a slew of nonprofit groups in Hillsborough County. Some of that time is spent as an unpaid director on the boards where he offers business and marketing expertise; the rest, on the street.

"What I do is cherry-pick the organizations I affiliate with," he says. With the right organization, "I get a sense of purpose, a sense of enjoyment."

Like delivering hot meals to the needy. He says he has delivered meals to one local woman for eight years.

"It's a small thing to talk to people on their porch for two minutes," he says, "but, it makes a big difference to them."

He says he sold his hospital management company more than 10 years ago and began volunteering while he looked for another job.

"I got interested in volunteering," Finkel says, "and forgot to go back to work."

Finkel moved to the Tampa Bay area for good in 2000, though he had lived here in the past. For the past 11 years, he has volunteered for the Hillsborough Crisis Center, Tampa Crossroads, Hospice and Meals on Wheels, and he serves dinners to the homeless at the Salvation Army's Trinity Café.

Every week, he goes to Sulphur Springs Elementary School to read to children. He says it is important that children learn reading skills early to be successful in life.

Besides having sat on the board at Tampa Crossroads, he also meets with clients there, said Sara Romeo, executive director of the nonprofit organization that assists veterans and the homeless and offers treatment and support for those dealing with substance abuse.

"He's a man who really doesn't get any benefit from anybody he helps," Romeo says. "He's a successful retired businessman who could be on the golf course. But he never says no to anybody who asks. He's a full-time volunteer."

At Tampa Crossroads, Finkel leads a weekly current events discussion.

"For the past 10 years, he has led that group for women," Romeo says. "He calls it a current events group; they call it Dave's group. He just really discusses what's going on in the world with our clients and that's something they don't really have.

"It's the most popular group in our program."

Finkel hopes others follow his example.

"The point I want to make," he says, "is that individually and collectively as a community, we can always and should always do more."