Right story, but wrong person

My old friend Jack Wiesenfeld called and said he had the perfect New Year's story. "It's something positive and will make people feel good to get the New Year going," he said.

Jack was close. It's a good story. It's just that he had the wrong person in the lead role.

It was Tuesday of last week, the coldest day of that deep freeze we had during the holidays, and there was a bigger crowd than usual at the Faith Café. The café is a wonderful operation run by several Christian churches that offers hot meals to homeless people out of a small building on Kennedy Boulevard.

One of its unusual qualities is that the recipients are treated with dignity, sitting at tables where they are served by volunteers. They get a great meal, cooked by a chef. By the way, the café is desperately looking for a new facility because it will be losing this one in the spring.

Anyhow, that's where Jack, who is retired, volunteers. "I'm the only Jew in the place," he says. "I think I'm there to make it truly ecumenical.

"It was near the end of our lunch," he said, "when this little old lady comes in. She is dressed nicely. I think she was using a cane.

"She gave me an envelope and said it was money she got from her children and friends, and she wanted to give it to the café. I opened it and there was a thousand dollars in 10-dollar bills inside.

"It was real busy and everyone was standing around, so I didn't pay that much attention. She got a receipt for the money and the next thing we knew she was out the door. I just thought your readers would think it was nice to know that there were people out there willing to be so generous."

I thought about it and decided Jack was right. There are good and generous people out there and we probably don't write nearly enough about them. I don't know the woman's circumstances or whether she had been saving up that money for a long time to give to the charity, but she obviously didn't want any particular credit or publicity for the gift.

Jack Wiesenfeld never would say this, but I think the person I ought to be writing about in this little vignette is him.

Jack is in his mid-80s. He grew up in Brooklyn and served in the Navy in World War II. He is long since "retired," although I'm not sure what that means.

In recent years, he has devoted his summers to traveling to Israel to do volunteer work. Here in Tampa, you already know about his service to the Faith Café.

He also volunteers at two elementary schools, where he is known as "Mr. Jack" to the children he works with on reading several days a week. I've listened to him talk about the value of education and reading, and know this is more than just something to occupy his time. He cares deeply about education.

I'd go on about him, but he isn't perfect. He tells some of the corniest jokes known to mankind and I get to hear most of them. But his is that same spirit he saw in the woman with the envelope. And his comes just as much from the heart as the cash, and lasts much longer.

sotto@tampatrib.com

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