Hope Featured Volunteer

Allen Flynn
Seen here with Greta Buck.

Pharmacist Allen Flynn, an Ypsilanti Medical Clinic volunteer, was honored at this year's Annual Spring Banquet as the recipient of the 2010 Daniel D. Heffernan Humanitarian of the Year award. The annual award recognizes a Washtenaw county resident who demonstrates his or her love of Christ through volunteer service to our neighbors in need.

Allen's response to Christ's call to serve leads him to many mission fields near and far. He has volunteered at the medical clinic since 2005, staffing the medication room during busy Wednesday evening walk in clinics, advising clinicians, supervising students, and helping patients. Even before arriving for Wednesday evening service at the medical clinic, Allen shares a meal with local residents at the Riverside Community Gathering in Ypsilanti, and frequently follows up by helping guests with outside needs such as transporting furniture or helping with moves. Allen cherishes these Wednesday gatherings as a way to focus on community.

Allen’s call to mission is also a quiet but highly effective force at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor. Through innovative programs and events like a recent 24-hour mission prayer vigil, Allen has helped members learn about local missions and promoted member volunteerism. He has organized and led three mission trips to Mexico, after which Allen facilitates participants’ translation of their newly heightened mission spirit into local mission work. After meeting a Pennsylvanian pastor in Guatemala, Allen organized a 2008 youth group trip to help at the pastor’s Hispanic church in Norristown and forge relationships with the youth there. This year the Norristown youth will visit Michigan to address local needs and build on the friendships formed in 2008.

Westminster Assistant Pastor Cathi King describes Allen as “…a real visionary with a heart for the poor in our community. He looks for opportunities not just to serve, but to actually engage in relationships . . . because he believes that we are called into a new understanding of community – and that means widening our table to love and share with one another (person to person and heart to heart).” Everyone who knows Allen sees this in his day to day life. Had you joined him recently while serving overnight during Westminster’s week to house the homeless (which Allen organized), you’d have found him engaged with guests, forming real relationships. Watch him dispensing medications at the medical clinic and you’ll see the same Christian love in his interactions. Even at 10:30 pm after an overly long Wednesday night clinic, Allen was befriending the last patients as he dispensed their medications, asking to be taught a few Albanian words so he could better join them in their own space.