Janice Sweeney works on a volunteer basis at the VFW Post in Jay and organizes a massive yard sale that is a fundraiser for Special Olympics. Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald
When Janice Sweeney was a student at Jay High School, she volunteered at the snack shack at athletic games. She graduated in 1971 but never stopped volunteering.
Janice Sweeney Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald
Sweeney now leads a crew to put on Friday night takeout dinners at the VFW Post 3335 in Jay that raise money for veterans and community programs. She also spends time helping out at the Jay, Livermore, Livermore Falls Food Cupboard, including volunteering at its free dinners at St. Rose Community Center in Jay.
The 70-year-old, who is widowed and lives in Jay with her two dogs, has retired twice so far – first from Wausau Paper at the Otis Mill after 25 years when it closed in 2009, then from managing the private Hill Side Sports Club in Jay. She’s now the kitchen and bar manager at the VFW, a volunteer 20-hour-per-week position.
“She can’t say no! It’s not in her vocabulary, and the citizens of this small community are forever grateful for this beautiful angel,” her sister, Sue Fournier of Freeport, wrote in her nomination for Mainers To Be Thankful For.
Sweeney also serves on the local board of Special Olympics and raises money for the nonprofit through yard sales that she started holding at her house nine or 10 years ago. The first donation she gave to the committee was about $400. The last sale at her house, two years ago, raised $3,500. It got so large that she arranged to move it to the VFW Post, where it’s been held since.
“It is a feel-good thing to do stuff for other people. It’s as simple as that,” Sweeney said. “I just don’t think of what I do as special. … It’s just what I do.”
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