By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

“I don’t think this Great Person [award] fits,” says Margo Hill,
sitting in the living room of her Cape Elizabeth home. “I thought
everybody volunteered.”

Tom and Margo Hill, who will celebrate 25 years of marriage this year,
are the winners of the South Portland-Cape Elizabeth Sentry 2007 Great
Person Award. For nine years, the couple has been coordinating
volunteer-led monthly dinners at the Wayside Soup Kitchen in Portland,
but both say their fellow volunteers are more deserving of the honor.

Doris Cook, a fellow parishioner at Holy Cross Church in South
Portland, nominated the Hills for leading and inspiring a group of some
40 volunteers, from their church as well as another congregation in
Wells, to give of their time on the first Sunday of each month. Margo
Hill says Cook, who can often be found overseeing the dining room’s
coffee and tea operation, is more of a ‘great person.’ When the Hills
make a round of calls to remind volunteers to clear their calendars for
the first Sunday evening of the month, Cook responds right away with
‘I’ll be there,’ says Margo Hill.

“I don’t even think we get out who we are,” she adds with a laugh.

Who they happen to be are people who stick with what they love. Margo
Hill, 45, has worked for Residential Mortgage Services for more than 15
years and her husband, 53, has worked in South Portland’s wastewater
treatment department for 20 years. They’ve lived in Cape Elizabeth for
10 years, in a house adjacent to the municipal boundary.

The dinners are a permanent fixture on their busy calendars. They work
part-time at the Cumberland County Civic Center, and in the summer they
work the concession stands during Portland Sea Dogs games at Hadlock
Field.

“I have the best job,” says Margo Hill, who pours beer for thirsty sports fans.

In nine years, the couple estimates they have only missed three Sunday
dinners at the soup kitchen and they don’t take a break for holidays.
When the Fourth of July fell on the first Sunday of the month, they
recruited Margo Hill’s family – she’s one of six siblings – to help out
after a day at the lake.      

The Hills started volunteering at Wayside because it presented an
opportunity to volunteer as a family. Their children, Allison and T.J.,
are now attending college, and Tom Hill recalls the family’s first
visit to the soup kitchen was a life changing experience.

“It’s kind of an eye opener to see people who aren’t as fortunate as you are and to see so many [people],” he says.

As they sit across the room from one another in the living room, they
frequently finish each other’s sentences and Margo Hill adds it was
surprising to see the number of people who came in for dinner with
everything they own on their backs.

From the first time they helped out, Tom Hill says they were hooked.
His wife adds, “You help so many people in a short period of time.”

Wayside is Maine’s largest soup kitchen and provides lunch and evening
meals to homeless and low-income individuals. In 2006, Wayside served
47,992 lunches and 77,338 dinners.

The organization frequently collaborates with the Preble Street
Resource Center, which offers breakfast, and the St. Luke’s Soup
Kitchen.  

Thanks to a volunteer census taker, the Hills have a good idea how many
individuals come into the dining room during their Sunday dinners.
During their biggest night, Tom Hill estimates they fed 250 people.

“That’s a lot of meals in one hour,” Margo Hill adds.

Most of the volunteers have been participating in the monthly dinners
for several years. They range in age from 8 to 80 and take charge of
the cooking, cleaning, dishwashing and ensuring the dining room has a
restaurant-like atmosphere. Some people may associate soup kitchens
with cafeteria-style meals, but that’s rarely the case at Wayside.
Margo Hill says their “customers” are waited on hand and foot.

“We don’t want them to have to do anything,” she says.

The volunteer chefs start bustling around the kitchen three hours
before the meal is scheduled to hit the table. While the soup kitchen’s
management mainly plans the meals, Margo Hill says the chefs can make
requests and are creative with side dishes.

They laugh as they recall the time a couple of their volunteers decided
to make biscuits from scratch. Baking 200 biscuits can produce quite a
mess in the kitchen, it turned out. Everything and everyone was covered
in flour.

“I was still picking flour out of my ear a week later,” Margo Hill says, laughing.

But, Tom Hill recalls a customer approaching him and raving they were the best biscuits he had ever eaten.

Margo Hill says you won’t find the group’s younger volunteers fooling around.

“They know what they’re doing is important and they enjoy it,” she
says. “I don’t think their mothers are dragging them in by the hair.”

The Hills say they have been fortunate to maintain a large group of
dedicated volunteers. Margo Hill says the Wayside staff is always in
awe of their numbers.

“They’re always impressed we don’t need help,” she says. “They’re
always trying to send in help, but we say, ‘Save it for another group.’
We’re a well oiled machine.”

Wayside needs volunteers for its lunch program Monday through Friday
from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and from 5:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. for its
dinner program.

For more information about volunteering at the Wayside Soup Kitchen visit www.waysidesoupkitchen.org or call 775-4939.