SCI Smithfield held a Volunteer Appreciation Banquet on April 17. Guests, staff and inmates enjoyed a roast beef dinner prepared by food service staff. Volunteer of the Year was awarded to the 2018 and 2019 recipients. Each Volunteer of the Year was presented with a painting that was painted by one of SCI Smithfield's very talented inmate artists.
The 2018 recipient was Patricia (Pattie) Gist (pictured above) who is a Yokefellowship volunteer. Gist has been volunteering in prison work since 1987 when she first volunteered at Bucks County Prison.
She said, "[Inmates] need encouragement and love, and I feel it is a privilege to be able to continue to come in. When I don't get to come in, my week feels incomplete."
Through the years, she has also volunteered in the Alcoholics Anonymous program as well as AA at SCI Huntingdon. She said she volunteers because God placed it in her heart to carry out His work.
The 2019 recipients for Volunteer of the Year were David and Reba Bowen (pictured at right) who are Yokefellowship volunteers. Chaplain David Bowen has volunteered in prisons since 1955, when he went as a volunteer with his father and brother at the Portage County Jail.
Bowen said that volunteering is not about recreation and entertainment—it is about work, witness and rest. He said he has been volunteering in prisons most of his life. After he met Reba and they married, they joined together on their volunteer mission throughout the state at various prisons.
David Bowen served as the facility chaplaincy program director at SCI Smithfield for many years, and during that time, Reba Bowen became a contractor for the parenting program. When contractors could no longer volunteer, she and Chaplain Bowen made the decision to give up her paid position as a contractor so that she could continue to be a volunteer at SCI Smithfield with Yokefellowship. Volunteering was where her heart was. Together they have served many inmates over the year sharing words of hope, love and encouragement through Christ's teachings.
Inmates shared their words of appreciation to all the volunteers. Several inmates' comments shared a common thread, and that was feelings of sincere appreciation for the volunteers' time, energy and commitment to come in and share with them. Inmates thanked them for "helping us become men of God," "thank you for helping humanize the men here" and "spreading words of recovery,"
Superintendent Jamey Luther thanked the volunteers for coming to the facility weekly and for everything they do for the facility. She went on to add that the volunteers provide a human connection and element to the inmates in a way that staff sometimes can't.