Linda Smith: A Volunteer with Abundant Energy, Dedication, and Compassion
The kindness and compassion in Linda Smith’s eyes reflect decades of serving others and meeting people exactly where they are. Perhaps her understanding comes from her own lived experiences. After raising three children in New Jersey with her husband, a minister, Linda’s family faced profound loss.
“My husband battled cancer for two years and died in 1990 when I was just 49, and my son was entering his senior year in high school,” Linda shares.
Today, a grandmother of six living in Orleans, she is one of Lower Cape Outreach Council’s longest‑serving volunteers. Her many years of volunteerism span multiple organizations devoted to care, dignity, and community.
Out of her own experience with loss, Linda first helped create a bereavement program for a hospice in New Jersey. In 1991, she moved to her family’s summer home in Orleans and soon learned about LCOC through the mission committee of the Federated Church of Orleans.
“I first met Kay Walker, the founder of Katy’s Korner, and helped move carloads of donated clothing from her home to a vacant Orleans storefront,” Linda recalls. “At the time, LCOC offices were on the lower level near the former food pantry, and Katy’s was little more than a corner of the space.”
As a full‑time Orleans resident, Linda also volunteered with the first social worker of the newly formed VNA Hospice on Cape Cod to create and help facilitate its bereavement program. Deeply moved by her first hospice patient with AIDS, she later volunteered with the Provincetown AIDS Support Group—working with clients, helping start a local meal program, and driving clients to Boston hospital appointments for nearly ten years.
Never one to slow down, Linda next helped the Orleans Methodist Church secure housing for J‑1 visa students working on the Lower and Outer Cape. “At one point, we were finding homes for more than 200 students each summer,” she says.
Today, Linda serves on the LCOC Volunteer Steering Committee. Never to rest on her laurels, she volunteered in the Main Food Pantry during the past year while Katy’s Korner was temporarily closed and moved to the first floor of LCOC headquarters for expansion renovations.
“So many volunteers and clients have shaped my own learning and growth,” Linda reflects. “I’ve missed working at Katy’s Korner and can’t wait to return to the new space this spring. I’m honored to be part of it all.”