Julian and Sally Skiba, ages 85 and 83, respectively, volunteer at the Friendship Room three days per week. Sally will turn 84 on May 18.

Featuring the Skibas fits right into the theme of honoring April as National Volunteer Month.

Sally has been serving at the Friendship Room since the first day it opened, on Nov. 14, 1988.

She recalls they had one pot of soup and some sandwiches, and only a handful of patrons that day. But even if there was just one mouth to feed, she would be there to do it.

Sally and Julian Skiba look up from preparing food at the Friendship Room in Alpena.

The Friendship Room currently provides full hot meals for about 100 people per day, Julian said.

“All the people that come here to eat are very nice,” Sally said. “They’re very thankful, and very polite. And the people we volunteer with are all very nice. We’re lucky.”

Julian said he retired from the city when he was 55, and went to work at Omni. When he went to part-time at Omni, the days he wasn’t working, he would come volunteer at the Friendship Room. He retired from Omni when he was 68.

The couple faithfully tends to their shifts each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. They have not let the COVID-19 pandemic slow them down, either. They mask up and show up.

“We’re both Catholics, and someplace in the Bible (it says) ‘If you do the least to my brethren, you do it to me,'” Julian said. “You invite people who can’t invite you back.”

Friendship Room Assistant Director Mary Jack stands in front of boxes full of donated goods.

The Friendship Room is open to all community members.

“These people need this ­– not all financially,” Julian said. “We’ve had people here who could well afford to eat anything they wanted, anyplace, but they need friendship. It’s called the Friendship Room.”

He said there are a lot of lonely people out there.

Julian added, “One gentleman who ate here, when he died, he willed us enough money to put in a walk-in cooler and freezer.”

He said many individuals and families “desperately need it,” both financially and socially.

“Without this, some people would never get a meal or anything to eat that day,” Julian said.

It has been difficult during the pandemic for those who live alone, he said, because the Friendship Room has been restricted to carry-out meals, removing the option of eating together.

“It’s been a great hardship on a lot of people,” Julian said.

The Skibas show up before noon on the days they volunteer, and they stay until nearly 6 p.m. most days. They prepare and cook food and do anything that is asked of them, including the dishes.

“I wash, and she dries,” Julian said.

Since they’ve been doing it for so long, they know their way around that kitchen, which makes it easier for Assistant Director Mary Jack.

“Honestly, it means that we’re able to do what we’re doing,” Jack said. “When you have a core, when you have Sally and Julian, and there are others like them, but they’ve been here since the beginning. They know how the ovens work, they know how the dishwasher works, better than I do. I don’t have to keep telling them what to do. I don’t have to show them where we keep things.”

She calls the Skibas “the heart” of the operation.

“I have them as the heart,” Jack said. “They’re here, and they have the knowledge and the willingness to be here. And the patience. They’re very good with all the new people.”

She added that as older volunteers during a pandemic, “they’re risking their lives to be here. I didn’t expect any of them to want to do this, when this happened.”

Jack told the older volunteers that they were not expected to volunteer during the pandemic if they did not feel comfortable doing so.

“We didn’t want anyone to have to make this decision,” Jack said. “But, for the Skibas, they’re like, ‘There is no decision to make. We’ve made that decision a long time ago, and we’re going to do it, no matter what.'”

She called them a blessing.

“We’re blessed with them, and we’re blessed with the whole community,” Jack said, adding that this community is so generous in giving food and supplies to keep the operation running, especially during a pandemic.

Julian added that the paper products for carry-out meals are an added expense, since they used to use and wash dishes when the meals were served in-house.

Every minute of volunteering is worth it to the Skibas.

“We get more out of it than we give,” Julian said.

“All of our kids live away, so it gives us company to be with,” Sally added.

“It gives you purpose,” Julian concluded. “You can’t give more to God than he can give back to you. You can’t outgive God.”

The Skibas will celebrate 65 years of marriage on Sept. 8.

“If you marry a friend, it’ll last,” Julian said.

They still enjoy spending time together every day.

“When I was seven years old … he threw chestnuts at me,” Sally recalled. “He said he returned what I threw first.”

“Now that’s the truth,” Julian interjected.

“I said I wouldn’t do that,” Sally added.

What she will do, though, is continue to volunteer at the Friendship Room with her husband for “as long as we are able,” she said.

Located at 322 W. Chisholm St. behind St. Bernard’s Catholic Church, the Friendship Room opens at 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday for pick-up meals only, because of pandemic restrictions.

For more information, call the Friendship Room at 989-354-8018.

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