FISH Celebrates 30 Years Of Service

About 20 people turned out at Trinity Church Sunday afternoon to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the organization called FISH of Newtown.

FISH, founded in November, 1969, is made up of volunteers who provide transportation for those in need of a ride to medical appointments, etc. Al Goodrich, who was present on Sunday, was the only original member present. He wrote the first schedule for drivers.

The fish is an early Christian symbol, and in Greek it is emblematic for “Jesus Christ, God’s son, Savior.” It was once used as a symbol for help or to show affiliation with the group.

“FISH helps people as neighbors help each other. It requires of its participants not money, but personal involvement,” noted member Mary Mitchell.

Fritz Freeman, a Newtown resident now living on Diamond Drive, was in England in the early 1960s and remembers seeing a symbol of a fish in cottage windows. Inquiring about its meaning, he was told that a group calling itself FISH drove people without transportation to medical appointments, exactly what it does today in Newtown. Later, moving back to the United States to Marshfield, MA, and then to Newtown, he interested the Episcopal Church Outreach Committee in establishing such an organization. The idea took off like wildfire.

Originally, in Newtown, the organization offered services round the clock, seven days a week, and had 40 drivers. Today it operates four days a week with 18 drivers and 12 substitutes.

FISH does not have fund-raisers. The group depends on contributions from riders, local groups like the Women’s Club, Rotary, the Lions’ Club, churches, citizens, bequests, and memorial contributions.

Despite the decline in membership, the organization continues to run smoothly. FISH of Newtown handles about 50 calls a month.

Regular drivers are Doris Bulmer, Sheila Colby, Bob Dyer, Wes Gillingham, Melissa and Dick Kraycir, Mike Meffert, Al Mitchell, Marcia Morley, Joe Murphy, Tim O’Connor, Jerry O’Neil, Ellen Parrella, Dick and Pat Parrott, Deirdre Smialowski, and Peg and John Watson. Substitutes are Bob Carter, Amy Dent, Tom Cassin, Bob and Sylvia Poulin, Sandra Marsilius, Chris Schmidt and Bob Stokes.

On Sunday, drivers shared some of their memories.

“It’s a two-way street,” said one driver. “The patients are very grateful, and I get tremendous satisfaction from helping others in dire need, in learning how to be cheerful and gracious in the face of trying or grave situations.”

“I might need help myself sometime. I look forward to the days when I’m on duty,” another driver said.

Another volunteer said she joined FISH 10 years ago as a new resident looking to learn the neighborhoods. “To pick up patients, I’ve driven to remote neighborhoods and to trailer parks. I’ve learned quite a bit about medicine, too. One patient was mopping her floor when I picked her up. She asked for help getting down her back steps and I found out she had lost all her toes due to diabetes. What a shock that was,” she said. “In spite of it though, she was cheerful and good company. It made me count my blessings.”

Another driver, waiting for her patient outside in the waiting room, told about being invited by the doctor to view a patient’s heart beating on the ultra-sound machine.

Yet another driver told about helping a patient visit a technician to get a new prosthesis for her right leg. “Then she had to pull her stocking on. She couldn’t do that and hold the prosthesis in place at the same time, so I got down on the floor and started helping her,” the driver said. “The stocking got caught, and we both went into hysterics, laughing at trying to get that stubborn stocking on. Some of them, in the face of tragedy, have a wonderful sense of humor and are so courageous.”

To learn more about becoming a FISH driver, call Secretary Mary Mitchell at 270-9135.