Crossroads Urban Center shares love

It was a reminder of love, and what's important. Out the back door came a delicate, lovely woman to get our donation to the Crossroads Urban Center Thrift Store. Her strong, thin arms lifted the boxes and took them inside while telling us she was a volunteer carrying on the tradition of her daughter, Debra Duncan, before she passed away last year.

It is a modest store on the west side, at 1385 Indiana Avenue in Salt Lake City, well maintained and organized, though bursting at the seams, that gathers clothes and household items to give or sell at a low price to those in need.

She wanted to know if we'd been coming here long, described her daughter and asked if we remembered seeing her here. She then told us that her daughter had volunteered at Crossroads for over 20 years before she passed away and that she especially loved volunteering at the Thrift Store.

In fact, she said, there's a picture of her inside the store with a poem written in her honor by the store manager, KC Owens, who read it at her funeral. As she told us her story about her daughter, her voiced cracked with emotion and pride. When we asked if we could see the photo, she seemed delighted we'd asked.

It was a simple, framed photo along with the poem that paid tribute to Debra and conveyed just how much she was missed at the Thrift Store. The Center was where her daughter was able to live her passion of caring for others. She was a dedicated volunteer known for her generosity. She was also a board member and because she was so valued, meetings were often scheduled around her job as a registered nurse. By the way this mother was honoring her daughter's life, it was obvious the daughter had simply lived what she had been taught.

As I walked in the store, I had a sense of nostalgia about how the Crossroads Urban Center was started. While living in the Central City neighborhood in 1966 a young Methodist minister, Rev. Mason Willis, came to ask how he could best help the poor. I told him he should open a place in the neighborhood. Being totally committed to his ministry, he quickly found a place — a vacant but elegant mansion at 347 South 400 East that became the Crossroads Urban Center. The Thrift Store was originally located in the basement of the mansion. The Center continues to practice according to Rev. Willis' belief that the church needs to satisfy the "whole man."

To have met Debra's mother and see her loving tears as she spoke with pride about her daughter's commitment to serve her community was a reminder that these are the good people who give so much and ask for so little. Their joy is in the giving. And today, over 40 years later, Crossroads Urban Center remains a place where people come, give and show love for each other.

Debra was one of those angels in our community that never receives, or seeks, public recognition; the ability to give to a community is the only reward sought for. They are the individuals who find fulfillment in life by caring for others instead of pursuing material or personal gain. They have the gift of giving, and if we take the time to look, there are many among us.

A Utah native, John Florez has been on the staff of Senator Orrin Hatch, served as former Utah Industrial Commissioner and filled White House appointments, including Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor and Commission on Hispanic Education.