Wanted: 1,000 grocery bags of food
to feed families in need

By John Shaughnessy

When a couple wanted to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary by jumping out of an airplane, Bob Haverstick made the sky-diving dream possible for an 88-year-old Indiana man and his 81-year-old wife.

He also helped a 78-year-old woman live her dream for speed—putting her in a two-seater dragster that roared down an Indianapolis drag strip at 158 mph.

Now, after helping to make 1,000 dreams come true for senior citizens, Bob Haverstick wants to celebrate the milestone with a perfect wish that could touch the lives of at least a thousand people.

He wants to provide 1,000 bags of groceries for 1,000 families in need—a wish that is the inspiration of Lucious Newsom, the 90-year-old, self-proclaimed “Lord’s beggar for the poor” who has been helping to feed the needy in Indianapolis for 18 years.

“We asked Lucious if he had a wish and he said, ‘I want you to feed 1,000 of my people,’ ” said Haverstick, 58, the founder of the Indianapolis-based Never Too Late organization that tries to make dreams come true for senior citizens.

So on July 29, Haverstick and Newsom are planning to distribute 1,000 grocery bags filled with food, including bread, cereal, canned vegetables and beef stew. The plan is to distribute the food at Anna’s House, a multi-service, community center that is scheduled to open that day at the corner of Elder Avenue and New York Street on the near-westside of Indianapolis.

“Lucious is walking in that same walk of faith as Mother Teresa—one person at a time,” said Haverstick, whose efforts to help senior citizens earned him a Spirit of Service Award from Catholic Charities Indianapolis in 2002. “It’s like a walk of faith I’ve never seen.”

Haverstick has made his own special path since he started making wishes come true for senior citizens six years ago.

“When I started this in April of 2000, I saw this as a nice project,” Haverstick said. “Now, I know it’s something more. I look up and say, ‘Thank you, Lord.’ It’s almost like I’m pulled along. I’ve just kept on riding the wave, not knowing where it’s going to take me. Now, I stand back in amazement at how the wishes unfold. “I’ve seen all the lives this has touched.”

(Anyone wishing to get involved in the project, or contribute to it, can contact Bob Haverstick at 317-823-4705.) †