5 days Ago By Delaney Otto
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is part of an ongoing series about volunteers in the Greater Grand Forks community. GRAND FORKS — “It’s a big world,” says Nell Lindorff, and volunteering can make it a better place. It can also connect people with others from different backgrounds, cultures, or — in the case of the Global Friends Coalition — different countries.
ADVERTISEMENT Lindorff, who has been helping at Global Friends for about a year after the organization asked for volunteers at her church, believes everyone ought to volunteer somewhere. “We are invited as human beings to connect with each other in a way that is helpful,” she said. “We can complain about the world, but it's just better to get up and go volunteer.
You feel better.” In her time with Global Friends, Lindorff has helped three families find their footing in the area – two from El Salvador and one from Nicaragua by way of Costa Rica. Now that the three families are more established in the city, she’s been dabbling in other things, helping out wherever she can with them and other families.
Sometimes, that means driving someone who doesn’t yet have a car get to work, or the doctor’s or dentist’s office. Other times it’s helping them buy groceries or find a coat, going to appointments to help translate or just checking in. If the children get out of school early or have days off, she’ll watch them while their parents are at work.
“I just so enjoy my time with them and I feel like I’m the grandmother,” she said. Cynthia Shabb, executive director of Global Friends, also said Lindorff has become somewhat of a family member for the families she has helped. Lindorff does her volunteer work with ease, Shabb said, and steps up to help and give.
“She’s volunteering through us, but even if she didn’t have an organization to go through, she’s just the kind of person that steps up to help people,” she said. “She has done it with such ease and she’s such a friendly person and really wants to help people and give back." ADVERTISEMENT The family bond extended to inviting the families for Thanksgiving and Christmas last year, Lindorff said, and she’s planning to invite them again this year.
Helping refugees get settled makes Lindorff think about how she would feel in their shoes, and what she would want or need coming to a new area with nothing but what can fit in a suitcase. Sometimes that just means reaching out with a phone call or text or by stopping by, and keeping them from feeling overwhelmed, she said. “They’re delightful.
They’re so appreciative and they need a friend,” Lindorff said. “They left so much behind, as far as family and friends and a home and jobs and everything you couldn’t put in a suitcase is left behind. So, they need someone to connect with, and they don’t spend a lot of time talking about the past or complaining about their situation.
I’ve never heard a complaint. Honestly, in a year I have never heard any of them complain.” Lindorff said she would like to see more men volunteer at Global Friends, as a large number of volunteers are women.
The children who come in need a male role model, especially those who don’t have a dad, grandfather, uncle or big brother. “Otherwise, they’re just surrounded by women at school and at home and in between,” she said. “If we could invite a couple of men who may speak Spanish, or may not but have Google Translate, that would be really super if they could spend some time in the afternoon with the kids.
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