“Oh, it’s Luellen the wonder worker,” said one of the volunteers as Luellen Deeds approached the check-in table at the emergency warming center at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. It’s Feb. 18, 2025, and the temperature outside was just 12 degrees.
The center opened its doors to individuals seeking warmth and a hot meal, as they did 19 other days this past winter.
Deeds, “the wonder worker,” spent her weekend securing at least 4 volunteers per shift to ensure the center could activate.
It wasn’t until 4 p.m Sunday, after a weekend filled with calls and emails, that Deeds could officially activate the center for the upcoming week.
At the time, Deeds was the volunteer and outreach director at the United Way of Licking County, though she retired from her post in June this year.
As volunteer and outreach director at United Way, most of Deeds’ work is completed prior to the opening of the warming center. Yet, each time the center is open she volunteers wherever needed and ensures the scheduled volunteers have all they need for the night.
The volunteers voices chorus with joyful greetings and smiles towards Deeds as she approaches. They share pleasantries, then dive into business. She shows the new schedule she printed off, adjusted to have more space to write.
“What do you guys need?” she asks. She pulls out her phone, opens the notes app and assembles a list. Duct tape. Pens. Medical tape.
“Someone’s going to email me and ask what we need,” she laughs. “Now I have a list to tell them.”
After about 30 minutes of work, she leaves. She has grandkid babysitting duty. She will be back in the morning.
Deeds, 63, grew up in Nashport in Muskingum county, a 15-minute drive from her current home in Licking County.
In her role at the United Way, she referred to herself as a “volunteer matchmaker.” Her role involved connecting volunteers with opportunities to give back to their Licking County community.
Organizations in search of volunteers will reach out. Deeds organized the information to put in United Way’s new volunteer hub, a central location to ask for volunteers in which they can sign up directly.
“Once they sign up for it, then I play matchmaker and I introduce them to the organization that they’re going to help give them some basics and they go forward with it. And then that organization comes back with me and says, thank you for the great volunteer,” Deeds said.
When Deeds hears stories about nonprofits gaining board members who started off as volunteers, or volunteers getting more regularly involved, she knows she made an impact in connecting people.
“I tell people, volunteer for things that you’re passionate about. If you volunteer once and it’s not your jam, that’s okay. There’s something else that needs you,” Deeds said.
Recently, when she’s not working, volunteering at the warming and cooling center or spending time with her grandchildren, she’s been volunteering at Weathervane because of her long-standing love of theatre.
At United Way, Deeds was the office mom. When Assistant Director Shelby Conley joined the non-profit, Deeds was quick to welcome her into her new role.
Now if Conley needs anything from a cough drop to a piece of advice, Deeds has her covered.
“She’s the kind of person that when you can tell the office morale is low, she’s the one that’s going to help bring it back up,” Conley said.
In the warmer months, Conley and Deeds take a 10-minute break outside the office and walk down the street to get the mail. In the short trip, Deeds will pass someone she knows on the street, or a car will stop and wave. Maybe this time, she will know someone in the post office. Conley says they can’t make the trip without Deeds running into someone she knows.
“She’s done a lot of different jobs in her life and she has met a lot of contacts along the way and everybody just seems to love her,” Conley said. “She has made a great impression everywhere she goes.”
Deeds have never had a straight path, in life or in her career. She’s dipped her toe into a range of careers in Licking County. She’s worked as a waitress, a bus driver and an on-air personality for a radio show.
And, she’s been married and widowed twice. The death of her first husband forced her to look at a different path.
“What I will say to all men and women is as much as we love our spouse and we love our families, at the end of the day, we have to find a way to depend on ourselves. Because I had a great family, I have a great family, and I have a great community, but at the end of the day, it’s up to me to decide what my life path is, how I’m going to pay my bills, how I’m going to take care of my family,” Deeds said.
She pursued a career teaching about recycling, where she worked for a while. But, as she moved closer to the nonprofit world, the jobs she was interested in would exist for a short time, then funding would be cut. She was out of another job and at this point, she had lost her second husband.
“I was drifting,” Deeds said. “I had to look outside of who I am, what are my strengths, what can I do?”
Deeds’ lucky number is three. When she sees something three times she has to pursue it. So, when the third volunteer outreach position appeared to her– a job that was part-time and temporary, she took a leap of faith.
“I was able to sell myself and learn from some really great people. I was able to keep this job and then continue to grow in it,” Deeds said. “My path has been littered with a lot of crap. But it’s also been littered with a lot of great people. I try to be that to others.”
At United Way, Deeds saw community impact through her work during United Week of Caring, Women United, and most recently the Hygiene Hub.
Read more: United Way of Licking County expands ‘Hygiene Hub’ program to all local high schools
The Hygiene Hub, a program headed by Deeds, aims to provide access to hygiene resources such as deodorant, tissues and feminine products for students at school.
Each high school in Licking County has a Hygiene Hub: rubbermaid cupboards stocked with free essential products for the students.
“I think what people find is that they want to help, but they are overwhelmed by all that needs to be done in our community and in the world. If you tell them ‘Could you collect soap?’ or ‘Could you collect shampoo or deodorant?,’ that’s something they can wrap their heads around,” Deeds said.
Aside from the Hygiene Hub, for the first time this year, Deeds has taken lead on coordinating the warming center. This is also the first year they’ve had an established volunteer hub to organize it through.
The Warming Center Task Force has taken over the coordination of the volunteers using the volunteer hub. They have had close to 100 new volunteers this winter, which puts them at 273 total. This winter, the warming center has been activated five times for a total of 19 days.
Read more: Newark warming center seeks volunteers as another artic blast hits Licking County
“I don’t know that I make the impact, I think the volunteers make the impact but it’s a good feeling to be a part of something that saves lives,” Deeds said. “I think one of the things people don’t really see is the need to see the faces of the clients, of the guests. We all have this concept of who is the unsheltered in our community, but until we talk to them until we see this sweet little boy who just wants to play and needs a new pair of boots we don’t really know.”
Deeds is happy to provide a space for unsheltered individuals, but she stresses she can’t do it without the volunteers. The warming center would not run without the group in the kitchen making and serving food. It wouldn’t run without the group showing up for the 5:00 a.m. shift before work, or any of the other volunteers giving up their time.
“They don’t come just to volunteer. They show up with coffee, they show up with whatever they think they can bring. I bake some brownies because maybe somebody would like that,” Deeds said. “I don’t know if I’m impacting them, but they’re impacting me. I think it’s the other way around. I think it’s just amazing to hear the stories and it makes you want to do more.”
Deeds doesn’t just coordinate the volunteers. She herself volunteers there whenever there is a need. She prefers the early morning shift in the kitchen, as that’s where she is most comfortable.
In her free time, Deeds likes to bake, garden, spend time at her church and spend time with her family.
Through everything, what she values most is her family and god.
“Without my faith, from the loss of my two husbands, I couldn’t have gone on,” Deeds said. “And without my church family and my family I wouldn’t have done well.”
Deeds defines her family as more than just her children, grandchildren and siblings. She’s found family at her church, Hanover Presbyterian and her work at United Way.
“God and family have been a big part of my support system, but they also bring me the most joy,” Deeds said.
Deeds has three children and eight grandchildren, all but two of whom live in Licking County. She jokes that all her children need to do is tell her where to be and what t-shirt to wear and she will be there, supporting her grandchildren.
She strives to support not only her grandchildren and her children, but also their friends.
“There’s been times that there’s been some kids that didn’t get along with mom, and so they stayed with me for a couple of days. Especially when I was widowed, I became everybody’s mom that they could lean on,” Deeds said.
Deeds is motivated to keep volunteering and keep working because she continues to see the community’s need. She wants to lead by example, like those before her, by giving up her time to volunteer and being positive.
“There are many people in this community, Carol Floyd is one of them that’s just amazing. She is 84 and volunteers once a week here,” Deeds said. “There’s people like Carol and people at my church that I see have not slowed down, that continue to volunteer. So why would I?”
Ella Diehl writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.