Jaretta Copeland, A Portrait of Dedication to Humanity

Let me tell you a story about Jaretta Copeland who I knew in Nashua, NH.  She was originally from Brooklyn, NY who was a single parent of two children. She was on public assistance and decided that this was not the example to set for her children. She moved to a primarily white State and worked for the USPS under a Federal program. She earned her Associates Degree in Human Services and became the Director of the Nashua Soup Kitchen as well as the Nashua Drop-In Center. She believed that it was not sufficient just to feed the poor. Obviously, the look of the poor then in Nashua was basically white families.  She not only led to bring in food to feed the poor but also acquired clothes as well as found shelter for them. She worked closely with the people attending the soup kitchen to be fed and she eventually nourished their spirits. I remember many times we would pick up the homeless and deliver them to the kitchen. She arranged to gain care for the sick, and helped them to find work.  After a while, there were less people at the kitchen.  The customers became the workers. She became an advocate for children and families.  She spoke up with the truth when it was not popular to be spoken.  Eventually the soup kitchen dwindled in numbers as she assisted them in becoming useful members of society.   Eventually, the members of the Soup Kitchen became the workers of the Soup Kitchen and helped others as they remembered so well of their experiences.  Some of them were found jobs hundreds of miles away.  She arranged transportation and a place to stay to get them started.  It got to a point that the homeless were trucked from other areas in so that Jaretta could help them.  She had the knack to get others to assist her. I remember one time I spent 24 hours with a woman and took shifts with 3 others including Jerry Durante to make sure the woman did not stick a needle in her before she entered a drug treatment facility. The woman is now a substance abuse counselor.  I remembered one time; she had helped two separate people get off assistance of the soup kitchen and started a new life together. I was the Justice of the Peace at their wedding.  I think that she should be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. We need more people like this. I believed that she also changed the way NH people, at least some, may have viewed black people. She was a pioneer for the human spirit.

On numerous occasions she had saved the lives of many people met with misfortune. As you see in one of the attached articles, she was nominated for Person of the Year for saving a human life. I believe she should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.  At one time, she saved the life of a young male who later became a fire fighter. Some years later, that person dramatically saved 3 children. The children became homeless. The fire fighters family adopted the three children so that the children would not have been separated from each other. I pulled up these articles which I had saved some years ago.  The last time I spoke with her was four years ago. She has continued to be driven to be a supporter for family and especially children. It is people like her that make life what it ought to be.