WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAU) — You’re never too old to help. That’s the lesson from a Wausau woman who has been volunteering at the Bethesda Lutheran Communities Thrift Shop for over twenty years. Adeline Brandenburg was recognized Friday for her efforts as part of National Volunteer Week. What makes Brandenburg’s service even more remarkable is that she’s just over a month away from her 100th birthday.
Adeline Brandenburg has worked all of her life, and she has no plans to stop now. “I worked in a greenhouse, which was really a fun thing, also with the plants and the flowers and all of that. In the war, I worked in a factory for a… made motors for the war effort, and my last job was I worked twenty years at First American Bank.”
Brandenburg also ushered at the Grand Theatre for twenty-four years, and then started volunteering at Bethesda Lutheran Communities. Her volunteer work began when she and friend Millie Wuster saw a bulletin at Zion Lutheran Church and started donating their spare time.
Adeline Brandenburg is amazingly healthy. She says she does not have any illnesses and no arthritis, so she still enjoys working at the thrift shop a few days each month and also digging in her garden. She says she feels blessed to be able to keep doing what she loves to do. “I’m still very happy to be here, and I guess I just keep going, just keep doing the things I like to do, and so far, there are quite a few things I still like to do.”
She’s also still driving herself to volunteer and to functions around town in her twenty-three year old Chevy Malibu, which is still in very good condition.
Thrift Shop Manager Alice Sliwicki says Brandenburg is always on the go during her shifts, putting merchandise out, straightening the floor, organizing hangers, and even helping out the cashiers. Adeline Brandenburg says she has no plans of stopping, as it keeps her busy and “young at heart.”
Craig McCarthy is Bethesda’s public relations specialist. He says volunteers like Adeline make it possible for them to provide the services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and you’re never too old or too young to volunteer. “Volunteers really help, you know, kind of streamline things and we wouldn’t be able to do the things we do without the volunteers.”
The Bethesda Lutheran Communities Thrift Shop staff is planning a birthday party for Adeline Brandenburg at the store. Brandenburg was reluctant to say what day in June her birthday is, so that it doesn’t become a two-month long celebration. She just wants to have normal days… which for most people approaching 100 years old, are anything but normal.
by Larry Lee, WSAU