EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is part of an ongoing series about volunteers in the Greater Grand Forks community.
GRAND FORKS – Sitting in a church pew one Sunday, when she was about to retire from a 22-year career as an elementary schoolteacher in 1999, Gloria Sanford heard a message — “a temple talk,” she said — that sparked her interest in volunteering.
The speaker “hit a nerve,” Sanford recalled. “I said to my husband, ‘You know, Mark, this is what I really want to do.’”
That summer, she began delivering food to shut-ins, “just on my own,” she said. “I don’t know, it just kind of went from there.”
She and a few other volunteers picked up food at various locations, through a program run by Altru Hospital, and distributed it. When that program ended, she said, she was determined to continue on her own.
Since then, once a week, Sanford and another congregant, Don Anderson, collect food donations from places including Panera Bread and two Loaf ‘n’ Jug stations – sandwiches and other items – bring it all back to Calvary and divide it among volunteers for delivery.
“I usually go to group homes – four of them,” she said. “It all goes to a good cause.”
Sanford also visits the homes of Calvary members who cannot attend church services in person, offering a time of prayer and conversation.
She can also be found visiting residents at senior living facilities, she said, “mostly people from our church.”
‘Most selfless person’
Brian Harris, who has known Sanford for about 20 years, was properties director for Calvary. In that role – and former roles as church council president and vice president – he served with her on various committees. Harris has a great deal of respect for Sanford, he said. He suspects that temple talk which so inspired her to volunteerism may have been focused on the message, “what you do outside the church is essentially your ministry.”
“She is always involved in doing good for others. … She’s just got this giving heart,” Harris said. Sanford is “one of the most selfless people I’ve ever met. She doesn’t look for credit for what she’s doing. She likes to be in the background. She was a wedding coordinator for years.”
“Behind the scenes, she makes everything happen and makes it look effortless” he said.
“And when called upon, I don’t think I’ve heard her say no (whether the church is) looking for somebody to be on a committee or talk to somebody and get involved in something, Gloria is present; she’s just there.”
After her retirement from her teaching career at Kelly Elementary School, Sanford stayed involved and “kept right on giving, and giving for the good of the community,” Harris said, “and not just benefiting one church.”
Whether it’s delivering food or reading to children in elementary classrooms, “she’s out there volunteering,” he said, “and, honestly, always with a smile. … It’s part of her makeup. I wish there were more Gloria Sanfords out there.”
“I think she’s done so much,” Harris said, “and is deserving of some credit, whether she would like credit or not.”
Sanford explains it this way.
“I love my church. Beyond belief,” said Sanford, who, with her husband, Mark Sanford, joined Calvary Lutheran shortly after they moved to Grand Forks nearly 50 years ago.
For 42 years, she served as wedding coordinator for the church, a role she relinquished about a year ago, she said.
She also visits residents in local retirement homes – mostly church members, she said – and gives Holy Communion in the homes of Calvary members who cannot attend church services.
As the Bible says, she noted, “We are to be our brother’s keeper.”
The eldest of 11 children, Sanford grew up on a farm north of Watford City, North Dakota, where taking care of others came naturally.“You’re so close to your own siblings,” she recalled. “All of that is the helper thing in me – you know, from babysitting or watching over (kids) all those years.”
Her mother, Evelyn Berg Froholm, was a source of inspiration.
“Mom was wonderful,” Sanford said. “She kind of was that way, and I think I have kind of taken after my mom with those types of things – just being a helper. … I still do everything I can to say yes.”
After living in Stanley, North Dakota – where her husband accepted his first teaching job – and later in Minot, the couple moved here in 1976. Mark Sanford served many years as superintendent of Grand Forks Public Schools and is serving as a state legislator, representing District 17 in the North Dakota House of Representatives.
“Our life has been very very wonderful. We have loved Grand Forks,” Gloria Sanford said. “Grand Forks gives people the opportunity to help.
“And, we all know, everybody needs help sometime.”