Longtime islander Larry Flynn is well known for being one of Vashon’s Metro bus drivers. Flynn is also a person with AIDS. Since his own diagnosis in 1985, he has worked to help others living with the disease, including collecting food every month for 17 years for the Lifelong Aids Alliance’s “Chicken Soup Brigade.” In the summer of 2015, Lifelong shut down the program on Vashon. Reflecting on his long-running labor of love, Flynn recently shared his thoughts with The Beachcomber, saying he is still frequently asked about food donations.

I brought Care to Shop (CTS), a program of the Chicken Soup Brigade for people facing chronic health conditions and hunger, to Vashon in 1999.

After collecting donations at Thriftway, I had the distinct pleasure for the first two years of carting home an average of 175 bags of groceries in my Ford pickup on the third Saturday of every month — and filling my home with this amazing amount of food.

The morning after each event, my home had the aroma of all those number 10 shopping bags, which filled me with a great sense of satisfaction — a job well done as it were. Then came the joy of wading through all those shopping bags to find the kitchen or living room since I lived in a place that was 900 square feet. These bags would live in my home until Tuesdays, when I could get the food to the warehouse in Seattle.

The first few deliveries were made in my Volvo, which took two trips per event, as it was a sedan, and Vashon has a very generous heart. Every month I had more than 50 volunteers to choose from to help me. The staff of Lifelong AIDS Alliance, now called just Lifelong, were dumbfounded by what we were up to out here, so much so that they once came over with a film crew and made a promotional video about our chapter of CTS. It showed how we did the food drive and what became of the food once it was taken back to Seattle. Starting at the front door of Thriftway, the cameras filmed through the checkout line and followed the food to Seattle, through the (Chicken Soup Brigade) kitchen, into the meal delivery program and into the home of a mother and her son who were living with AIDS. It was very inspiring and quite touching. The video is still available at the library.

At one point, arrangements were made so that two Vashon families who were Chicken Soup Brigade clients could shop on island instead of having to go to Seattle. For households with AIDS, cost is everything. Assistance dollars stretch just so far, and trips to Seattle are costly. So it was really great for these two families to be able shop out of the van, right in Thriftway’s parking lot.

So how much was collected over all those years? The people of this island donated 103 tons of food and nearly $43,000.

I was once presented with an award for what we did. I told them that I was accepting the award on behalf of Vashon, as I couldn’t have done anything without the support from my island. A footnote to this: They had to specifically create the award for Vashon as we did not fit any of their existing categories. This pleased me very much, the island still going its own way.

In the just about 17 years of doing CTS, I had the pleasure of standing in front of Thriftway with a wonderful group of volunteers who’s ages ranged from 6 to 82. High school volunteers were able to meet their requirement for community service. I loved filling out the forms and helping kids get through high school. It was cool.

In July of 2015 all of this came to an abrupt end. The program was cancelled in Seattle in 2014 but was kept alive here for another year, as they didn’t know what to do with us (their words). The director told me that they were “trying to maximize the product yield by streamlining their efforts.” Which meant what? I never did get a clear translation of their remark, but it did mean we were done.

I will always be very glad to have been a part of something this special, Vashon. Your generosity made it special. The creativity on how to help me run this thing was special. Thanks to all the volunteers over the years. Thanks for coming in from Seattle, Port Orchard and even Portland to be here for this. You were champs to stand in the snow and the heat, cheerfully handing out all those brightly colored shopping lists.

And very special thanks to Norm Mathews, who gave Thriftway’s third Saturdays all those years to CTS. That was beautiful, Norm, thank you.

And to all those I haven’t already thanked, thank you as well.

I am very glad to have been a part of Vashon’s generosity. The experience has left me with a huge, grateful feeling as a person with AIDS on the island.

— Larry Flynn has been a Metro bus driver on Vashon for 31 years.