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Highlands Today

Retired 71-Year-Old Keeps Busy Volunteering

Jasmina Meyer/Highlands Today

Barbara Walker, 71, volunteers at Highlands Regional Hospital in the gift shop, is a member of the New Washington Heights Concerned Citizens Group, Rebuilding Together, Equal Number Development and the Retired Educators.

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By Joe  Seelig | Highlands Today

Published: May 18, 2008

SEBRING — Barbara Walker, 71, of Sebring, puts in four hours a week volunteering at the Highlands Regional Medical Center's gift shop because that's all she can find time for in her busy schedule.

Retirement after 45 years with the school board as a cafeteria manager at E.O. Douglas School and then Sebring High School hasn't slowed her down.

Walker volunteers or is associated with at least six groups, that do everything from helping the elderly to organizing the annual Juneteenth Festival.

Widowed from her late husband Rudy Walker, since 1964, Walker has dedicated her life and free time to her family and the community.

She has helped out at the hospital's gift shop for about three and a half years, she said Wednesday, as she rang up candy and gifts for hospital workers and visitors.

As one customer left the shop, another would walk or roll in. It's tight, but there is just enough room for a wheelchair.

"I love it," she said, closing the cash drawer. "I have a chance to talk to different people. You'd be surprised how many people come in here feeling down and I have a chance to talk with them and lift their spirits."

A Spirit Of Giving
First off comes her church, First Missionary Baptist Church of Sebring, where Walker has worked on the church finance board.

"I volunteer in the community with people who are homebound, checking on the elderly, getting groceries, medicines, whatever help I can give," she said. "I carried them up to the county office for help with their housing, take them to NU-HOPE for help with their light bills and other expenses. Lately, I've run around making sure people know about the stimulus check that the government is giving."

She also belongs to the New Washington Heights Concerned Citizens Group.

"We have our main streets Highlands Avenue and Lemon Avenue being worked on, but we want all our streets worked on," Walker said. "We want sidewalks and curbs on at least one side of the street."

She thinks the code enforcement efforts are good.

"It's bad we have to be made to do things, but sometimes the money isn't available," she said. "But, sometime people leave junk laying around." The landlords or property owners are left with the cleanup.

Walker is a member of the NAACP; she is on the Economic Development Commission board, and belongs to Rebuilding Together, a group that helps people in need with roofing work, fixing up their properties and installing wheelchair ramps.

To top it off, she is also a member of the Florida Sportsmen, headed by Robert Saffold.

"I got more into it when I retired with my eldercare," she said. "I've always helped Bob Saffold with the children and I helped the Sebring Firemen with some of their activities."

Each year the group takes seven or eight bus loads of children to the Florida Classic in Orlando, when Florida A&M University and Bethune-Cookman University meet for a football event that draws more than 60,000 spectators from all over the country.

This year's meeting between the Wildcats and the Rattlers will be held Saturday, Nov. 22, at the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium.

The Florida Sportsmen have events all year long including a banquet dinner for youths who have advanced or maintained their good grades, filling children's backpacks with back-to-school supplies and a Christmas shopping spree at the mall, where they raise about $60 each for about 80 children.

She also helps out with next month's Juneteenth Festival.

Food And Service
During the hurricanes, Walker was a regular fixture at the Agri-Civic Center where she picked up items for people and transported people who needed extra care to the special needs center.

"I went over there and I got people food, water and ice," Walker said.

During a baseball tournament, some of the guys talked Walker into preparing the food for them.

"They were going to help me," she said. "They were working on the field and they'd come running in, 'What can I do Ms. Walker?' I'd say go wash your hands first. I've had so many classes on health over the years. I still remember the things I was taught 40 years ago."

She received an award when she retired in 2000 for her 43 years of service.

"It was 45 years," she said with a slight grin, guessing someone lost count.

Family Ties
Born to Ernestine Fayson and Walter Beal Sr., Walker is the sister of former Sebring City Councilwoman Mary Toney. Her other sister Eleanor Smith works at Belks. Her brother Earl Fayson worked for the county but retired, and her other brother Walter Beal Jr. lives in Melbourne.

She has two sons, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren who live in Highlands County.

Walker said her mother died when she was young and she was raised by her grandmother, Lula B. White.

"(Her grandmother) worked for the school board about 38 years as the cafeteria manager at E.O. Douglas School," Walker said. "At that time it went all the way from elementary to high school."

That was before air conditioning.

"We had wood-burning stoves in our school," she said. "I think they let the windows open up in the summer. During that time, we really respected our teachers because they would punish you, then let your parents know and we'd get punished two times.

"You had to do what you were told to do. That's out now. I guess some people carried the punishment too far."

But her boys were raised to respect their elders, and her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren are well behaved. It was her eyes, she said, all it took was a look — and they got quiet.

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