Community Hero of the Month: Pam Wilk

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Community member Pam Wilk has been nominated as June's Community Hero of the Month.

 

The Community Hero of the Month series recognizes individuals and organizations that have significantly impacted their community. 

 

The series is in partnership with Haddad Auto and will run for the next five months. Nominate a community hero here.

 

Wilk does not consider herself a hero but has impacted the community and inspired the next generation through her various acts of giving, such as leading fundraisers, volunteering for the AYJ Fund, providing food and companionship to a widower, or babysitting for a single mom who wants to go back to school. 

 

"If you're lucky enough to interact, and meet her, she will change you and help you be a better person," Kathy Arabia, AYJ Fund executive director, said. 

 

Wilk's giving nature was inspired by her mother, who would take people in who needed a place to stay. 

 

"They lived with us. Our house was never empty. We always had somebody that needed help living with us," Wilk said. 

 

She recollected how her mother helped take care of a boy with Down syndrome, helped a friend whose daughter had special needs, and how she and a bunch of people would walk to her house and have lunch there. 

 

Wilk's children have followed in both their footsteps. In 8th grade, Wilk's son lost a friend to cancer and, since then, has helped fund raise or donate to those fighting cancer. 

 

"Every year, his Christmas parties have a theme to bring a donation. It could be food for the local animals, shelter, food for the local food bank, things to mail to the soldiers, or donations for a local child fighting cancer in Illinois," Wilk said. 

 

Her daughter also helps others, and sat in a mall to sell tickets to benefit a young child in need of a transplant. 

 

When Wilk thinks of a hero, she thinks of nonprofit leaders like Arabia, and those who risk their lives to help others, like firefighters or police. 

 

However, on a small scale, making a difference in someone's life is an everyday hero, she said. It is not hard to give. Give what you can, whether it is time or money. It is that simple, Wilk said. 

 

"In any community you're in, there are people with need, and you never really know what people are going through when you interact with them throughout the community," Arabia said. 

 

"She's someone that can find that in people and is really attuned to that, and it makes the community a better place. It truly does. She makes the community a better place. She truly does."

 

She doesn't seek opportunities to give; they come to her. Wilk mentioned that she gains more from the experiences it brings, like the joy on people's faces or the love from a child.

 

"[Wilk] has always stayed in the background, not wanting anything more than to see someone enjoy a worry-free moment and give others a little bit of fun," Wilk's nominator said 

 

"... [Her] heart is as big as can be, and many people have benefited from her hard work and dedication to family and community."

 

Wilk went to school for social work and worked at the post office, where she met a lot of people who opened doors for her to get involved because of the conversations she would have with patrons. 

 

Wilk has been a leader for families in need for years, the nominator said. 

 

She began volunteering for community organizations in high school, tutoring others and serving as a "big sister" in the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program, and mentoring youth.

 

When Wilk retired, she saw it as an opportunity to volunteer more. 

 

One of the most rewarding things she has been involved in is the AYJ Fund. 

 

The AYJ Fund works to raise funds for cancer research in the hope of finding a cure. Since the nonprofit's establishment a decade ago, it has raised $1.4 million for cancer research.  

 

"Our mission is to help children with cancer, and she really took that to heart," Arabia said. 

 

Arabia and Wilk didn't know each other when the organization was founded but Wilk has become an important part of the nonprofit. 

 

She is caring and compassionate with every child they help, brings ideas to the table, and runs with the events, Arabia said. 

 

Wilk also inspires others to get involved including high school students all over the Berkshires.

 

In 2017, she helped institute a popular AYJ Fund fundraising event, the "Once Upon a Dream" concert, which gives kids the opportunity to dress up and meet their favorite princesses. 

 

"When I first met Pam, she made it really easy to understand the true meaning of why we're dressing up and what the AYJ Fund is. She makes sure that nobody overlooks the true meaning, and she's really a great person," AYJ Fund volunteer Layla Brooks said.

 

The concert started with just 10 princesses, but it has grown to include 35 characters, and the organizers hope it will continue to grow. They now make an annual appearance in the Fall Foliage Parade. 

 

It is Disney for a lot of kids who won't make it Disney. A lot of kids think the princesses are real and will ask the princesses what it was like to be in the movie, Wilk said. 

 

It is evident that Wilk's work to recruit youth volunteers has a ripple effect across the community. One of Wilk's princesses, Talia Rehill, gave the AYJ Fund a check for $500 from her National Honor Society chapter. 

 

Rehill invited Wilk to her college graduation, but she was unable to attend due to surgery. 

 

"You have truly been the missing piece of mentorship and motherhood that I have needed. You add so much into my life and the lives of everyone around you. You inspire me every day," Rehill said in a text message to Wilk. 

 

Seeing what the next generation does and has to offer is how Wilk knows that "most of these young adults will carry their passion to help others with them throughout life and, in turn, will touch many lives."

 

Wilk has also gotten her husband, Mark Wilk, and other family members involved in volunteering. 

 

"I'm very, very blessed with the wonderful people in my life, amazing friends, [and] an incredible husband, who I could not do without. He does a lot of work to make my dreams come true," Wilk said

 

"And that's how it all comes about, really. It does take a village, and I have a really good village." 

 

When the AYJ Fund designed the "Kisses from Heaven" window installation at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' Gallery 51 in December, Mark Wilk made the working lights, and his father built the bench. 

 

The installation not only drew attention to the AYJ Fund but also brought the community together — each of the snowflakes in the window had the names of a child who lost their life to cancer. 

 

"It meant a lot to each of the parents because each time your child is remembered and honored is really special," Arabia said. 

 

"It's not only what she does for the AJY fund, it's what she does throughout this whole community. She is always either helping somebody, or driving somebody to an appointment, or trying to figure out a way that she can make a difference, but she's always behind the scenes. ...

 

"You would never know that she's the inspiration behind what's being done for so many people in our community."

 

Wilk has also been involved in the Fresh Air Fund, which brings children from urban areas to experience the country during the summer.

 

"I just really loved the people that I met, and the things that we did, and to offer something for the community that we didn't already have," she said. 

 

Wilk and her husband would house children for two or four weeks, and then she became one of the people who went out and interviewed families to find homes for the kids.