Weston Resident Helps Spread Holiday Cheer

For Weston resident Bernadette Rehnert, the holiday season truly is one for giving.

A longtime supporter of charities and non-profits, Rehnert, who’s known as Berni, has focused some of her efforts of late on donating turkeys in the greater Boston area, most recently a giveaway in Chelsea last Thursday night that was a collaborative effort in which she purchased some 150 turkeys for low-income families.

“I suggested giving turkeys as a way to bring families together and let them know others care,” said Rehnert.

Rehnert said her involvement in the Chelsea turkey donation came by way of her long associations with fellow Weston residents Gene Miller and , both with the non-profit Families United in Educational Leadership (FUEL), an organization Hildreth founded in 2009 to help low-income families in Chelsea, Lynn and Boston. Requirements for FUEL families are saving a fixed amount of money each month, which FUEL matches, as well as attending monthly Savings Circle meetings that provide college preparation support and financial literacy education, and enrolling their children in FUEL's partner after-school programs, all concepts Rehnert said she found compelling.

“It’s very important to help low-income families with educational disadvantages, but the premise of incentives and having them come to meetings really helps them to move ahead,” she said.

At the recent Chelsea turkey giveaway, Rehnert said she felt “touched and moved” to be able to make participants’ holidays a bit less financially stressful.

“There were people there working two and three jobs, many single parents, grandparents,” said Rehnert. “When you see them there, it’s emotional. Some of them have very tough lives.”

A longtime board member of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston and several other area charities and non-profits, Rehnert said she became more "hands-on" with her efforts in 2008, when the economy plummeted and people from all walks of life began struggling.

Of particular concern to Rehnart is the problem of hunger, which she said is more widespread than people perhaps realize.

"It's not only in lower-income communities. There are areas right around here, in Waltham, for instance, where people go hungry," she said.

But it's a problem she hopes collaborating with organizations like FUEL is helping bit by bit.

“This is life today, and for many people, it’s hard,” she said. “We just have to try to help."