Prominent author and activist Naomi Evans says that “showing up for others is one of the most powerful things you can do,” and Fern Ridge Community Services volunteer Dennis Maricle epitomizes that statement through his meaningful work on behalf of the Veneta community.
Fern Ridge Community Services is a nonprofit organization based in Veneta that houses the community’s Senior Center and senior programs. Maricle’s many roles for the organization include running the website, signing up other volunteers, helping serve lunches at the center and facilitating clothing drives.
“If I can make a little difference in my community, I will do the best I can to make my community a better place,” Maricle said.
Maricle, who is in his 70s, has lived a life full of service. At a young age, he was inspired by social activist Dorothy Day, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement to provide direct aid to those in need. He said her selflessness influenced him to live by similar values and to make it his mission to help others.
“She influenced me not because I knew her personally, but because she lived the life of a person in selfless service,” Maricle said, who has volunteered for more than five decades.
Through the Veneta Faith Center, Maricle provides Sunday dinners every week for people in need. While working at one of those very dinners 10 years ago, he heard that the center had started hosting a warming shelter.
“The people at the church said they would open up for houseless people to sleep on a night where it was below freezing, and when I heard about that I started volunteering to help with the shelter, and I have been ever since,” he said.
Maricle now works consistently in collaboration with the Faith Center to support the unhoused people in the community. He said he believes everyone deserves kindness.
“They don’t care what religion you are, what color you are or what orientation you are. If you are in need, they will help you,” he said.
As a devoted volunteer, Maricle is passionate about his work and often has found it is difficult to get others to care as deeply.
“The hardest part of community service work is to get other people to care as much as I care,” he said. “You don’t want to judge people for not caring as much, but you really wish they would.”
His conviction and commitment have made him a natural leader who has rallied others to join the cause, setting the bar high for integrity and commitment. Maricle’s good work is impactful on many levels, making a difference both in the lives of those in need and those he motivates into showing up for their community.
“Example by action,” he said. “You do the work and people might see how important it is and follow.”
He said community service is fulfilling and full of proud moments. Five years ago, Maricle was working to push a change in Veneta ordinances that would allow transitional housing on church and private property. The city was responsive, and the bylaws were changed.
“Our group was the reason that the laws got changed, and I am very proud of that,” Maricle said.
Over decades of help and service in Veneta, Maricle has become embedded in the community, gaining an understanding of the folks who call it home and how it operates. Through the wide variety of projects he has supported, he said he has gained many diverse relationships and extensive knowledge about his hometown.
“When you scratch the surface of this, you find out how many people have devoted their lives to this work, and it is a pleasant surprise,” Maricle said.
The people in his community serving alongside him give Maricle hope for the future of his work. He believes that if everyone strives to make a difference in their own community, it will bring folks together, creating many more opportunities for improvement.
His advice for people who want to take action to make a difference in their community is to always be surrounded with caring and ambitious people who genuinely show up for others.
“Surround yourself with people that are hopeful and the opportunities will come,” he said.
Maricle helps people in many ways, and his work does not go unseen by those who are close to him, including fellow volunteer Bernita Burdett.
“Dennis is a very gentle teddy bear who is full of knowledge,” Burdett said. “He has his fingers in a lot of things that I wouldn’t even think he would. He is one of my go-to people.”
The gentle teddy bear has a huge heart full of love that calls him into action every day.
“Allow yourselves to be moved by compassion,” Maricle said, “because if you are compassionate, the needs of your neighbors will become readily apparent.”
In his 70s, Maricle has not slowed down, and he said he hopes to make a meaningful difference in not only his community but in the world.
“I hope after I am gone,” he said, “that the world is a little better place than it was when I was here.”
