Volunteer Opportunity Leads to Reunion
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Mosaic helps people connect to groups and individuals in the community around them. A recent volunteer opportunity reconnected someone Mosaic serves with a long-time family friend.
Robert Coughlin lives in a Mosaic home that was one of 273 sites offering volunteer oppor-tunities for United Way's Day of Caring in central and northeastern Con-necticut last fall. Volunteers arrived in the morning and Coughlin thanked each one individually while offering them bottles of water.
Elaine Martinelli was among the 5,653 volunteers serving that day, but helped at a different site in the morning. Coming to the Mosaic home in the afternoon, she jumped right into the landscaping and planting, scraping and painting.
As Coughlin returned home from an errand, Martinelli spotted him. She was unaware that Coughlin, the younger brother of her best friend Kim Hunt, lived at the Mosaic home. She had known "Bobby" since he was four years old but had not seen him in many years. The surprise reunion and personal connection brought new meaning and reward to the volunteer work Martinelli and her teammates were doing.
"It's always rewarding to participate in the Day of Caring but it was especially heartwarming and a pleasant surprise to be improving the home of someone I've know for over 45 years," Martinelli said.
