Community Conversations: Q&A With Board Member Liz Bonomo

We recently had the chance to sit down (virtually, of course) with Liz Bonomo, member of the Lori’s Hands Board of Directors and volunteer alumna of our Newark, DE Chapter. We talked about her experiences as a member of the first generation of Lori’s Hands volunteers, and learned about how her involvement in LH has influenced her career path. We love these opportunities to connect our past and current volunteers. We hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did!

Tell me about your experience as a Lori’s Hands volunteer when you were a student. How did you get involved? What were your client visits like?

I first got involved with LH because one of my roommates, Sarah LaFave, was the founder–Lori’s Hands is named after Sarah’s mom, Lori, who passed away from breast cancer when Sarah was in high school. Sarah and I lived with our other roommates in a little apartment above Newark Deli & Bagels on Main Street, and our apartment became LH headquarters for those first few years. That meant that we as roommates often filled in for other volunteers, so I got to know quite a few of our earliest clients, and every visit was a little different. I never knew if I would be making a grocery run, planting flowers, organizing craft supplies, or cleaning a bird cage. In my senior year I started seeing one couple every week and got to know them very well. They had no family in the area, and Lori’s Hands became like family to them. One of those two clients passed away in 2011, and I still have a mirror that belonged to her hanging by the front door in my house.

It’s really special to hear how much of an impact our clients have on our students’ lives, even long after they graduate. What are one or two of your favorite memories from volunteering with Lori’s Hands?

It’s really hard to pick a single memory because Lori’s Hands has been such a huge part of my life for 11 years now! But when I was a volunteer, my favorite days were special events like holiday decorating and fall yard work days. It was always so fun to think that on a single day, so many client visits were happening at once.

Those are such great days! We love that we have found ways to do some safe group volunteer work during the pandemic to keep those traditions alive. We recently held a group yard work day. It was wonderful to see our clients, even though it was from a distance!

We’re told that your experience with Lori’s Hands has had an impact on your career trajectory. Tell me more about that.

After graduating, Liz and fellow UD ‘11 grads developed Lori’s Hands from a student club into a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Here (L-R) Jennifer McCord, Sarah LaFave and Liz Bonomo prepare to send in our non-profit application to the IRS!
After graduating, Liz and fellow UD ‘11 grads developed Lori’s Hands from a student club into a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Here (L-R) Jennifer McCord, Sarah LaFave and Liz Bonomo prepare to send in our non-profit application to the IRS!

After graduating, Liz and fellow UD ‘11 grads developed Lori’s Hands from a student club into a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Here (L-R) Jennifer McCord, Sarah LaFave and Liz Bonomo prepare to send in our non-profit application to the IRS!

Yes! I majored in Foreign Languages & Literatures as an undergrad at UD, and I had no idea what I wanted to do career-wise, except that I wanted to travel. After graduation, a few of the founding LH volunteers worked together to make Lori’s Hands more sustainable as an organization by applying for 501(c)3 (non-profit) status and by designing the service-learning curriculum for the LH class. In the process of designing the curriculum, along with my personal experiences as a volunteer, I learned so much about the U.S. healthcare system and the ways that it affects the daily lives of individuals and families in our country. I realized that I had a passion for public health and health policy, and I decided to pursue a master’s degree in community health. Since then, I’ve been working in infectious disease research at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and I’ve had the opportunity to travel all over the world, just as I’d hoped as an undergrad. Now, though, I’ve decided to go back to school yet again, this time to study health law. I hope to enroll in law school in the fall of 2021 to earn my J.D.

Wow – it sounds like you’ve really found your passion in public health. Throughout your career and graduate school experiences, you’ve stayed involved in Lori’s Hands. What is your role with the organization today? What does your involvement entail?

I currently serve on the LH Board of Directors in the role of Treasurer. I am also the Chair of the Board’s Finance & Budgeting Committee, so I am the point person for all things money-related within the organization. My involvement as Treasurer takes many forms, including drafting budgets, ensuring regulatory compliance with the IRS and other agencies, assisting with grant applications and writing up financial policies and procedures. As one of several Board members who is also a Lori’s Hands alum, I try to apply my experience as a volunteer and my knowledge of the lived experience of our clients to the decisions we make as an organization every day.

That’s a great point — about how important it is for us to have volunteer alums as part of our organization’s leadership. What are your big dreams for Lori’s Hands? Where do you see us in 5, 10 years?

Some days I really have to pinch myself remembering the days that we sat around in our college living room, imagining the future of Lori’s Hands, and realizing that so many of our ideas have come to fruition. In the past decade we have gone from an all-volunteer student-run organization with a few hundred dollars a year for T-shirts, rakes and holiday decorations, to a professionally staffed non-profit with funding from major foundations and the federal government, with hundreds of student volunteers and clients participating in multiple states. But there is so much more work to be done! If there’s one thing the covid-19 pandemic has made clear, it’s that the crisis of isolation in this country, particularly among older adults, is only getting worse. In the coming years, we will need a healthcare workforce that is empathetic, informed and ready to help individuals and families tackle the challenges that come with chronic illness, disability and aging. Lori’s Hands alumni have those tools, and the more students we can reach, the better off our workforce–and our healthcare system–will be. In the coming years, I am really excited to see how Lori’s Hands takes shape in communities outside of Delaware–what looks the same, what looks different, and how much more we all have to learn.

Finally, what advice do you have for current students about how to approach our volunteer experience with Lori’s Hands?

Our Lori’s Hands clients are fascinating individuals. My advice is: ask questions! You will be amazed by the things your clients have done and seen and experienced. Your curiosity will serve you well as a volunteer, as a student and in whatever career path you choose.

We love when our graduates come back to Newark for group volunteer days. Here, alumnae Jennifer McCord, Alexa Rivadeneira, and Liz Bonomo rake leaves at a client’s house during a weekend visit back to campus.