LIFELONG RESIDENTS … These three lifelong residents of West Unity now enjoy a new aspect of giving back to the community they love. From left to right are Mayor Don Leu, Police Chief J.R. Jones and Village Chaplain Dee Custar. The idea, the name gathering and the phone calling… this new way to show the care of the village to those who may not be able to get out during this time, are covered by these three smiling faces. (PHOTO BY REBECCA MILLER, STAFF
By: Rebecca Miller
When entering the village of West Unity, Ohio, one sees large red signs that declare them to be “A Community That Cares.” “Welcome to West Unity,” they say, “A Community That Cares.”
Over the past year, an idea has taken shape and turned into some specific action that joins in to support this village motto. A number of residents who are older or live alone and have agreed that they would appreciate being checked on periodically, are now officially receiving calls from the village.
The person who has stepped up and makes the calls is the Village’s “unofficial Chaplain,” Dee Custar. Custar explained that her cousin, Mayor Don Leu, asked her if she would be willing to call people to check on them, as especially with the COVISS quarantine, there was a concern for the well being of all residents.
Leu had thought of the possibility of doing something like this a few years back when he was a Village Council member. “I never brought it up back then,” he said, “but it was something I have thought about off and on.”
When Leu became West Unity Mayor in January 2020, he took his thoughts on this idea to Dee Custar and then presented it to Council. The Village Council members all thought it was a great idea and Police Chief J.R. Jones offered to help make a list of names with which they could start.
“As I have been patrolling the West Unity area for the past 19 years and know pretty much everyone and their situations, it was easy for me to give them a list of names to start with,” Jones said.
Mayor Leu, Chief Jones and Dee, who just retired in January 2021 from 20 years of being a pastor, are the force behind this community service.
The program actually got started after the COVID shutdowns went into effect in March 2020. Mayor Leu was concerned for all the elderly who were closed in and might need someone to check on them.
He wrote a letter that was delivered, to introduce Dee Custar and let people know she would be calling them. Jones gave Custar a starter list of names and she began making phone calls to find out who might want her to periodically check up on them.
Custar says she would tell them who she is and ask how they are and then bring up the idea to find out if they would appreciate it if she called them “regularly.”
Custar shared in a phone interview that when Peg Bernath was the mayor, she had asked Dee if she would come and open the Village Council meetings with prayer, so Dee was already plugged in with the council members.
She continues to open the council meetings in prayer. She also said that she knows many of the people of West Unity as she was born and raised there, graduating from Hilltop\and setting up housekeeping there with her husband in 1984.
“I know most of the people and their stories,” she said. “There are a few who are very old and they are so sharp! They are unbelievable. Some of them were friends of my parents, so I have known them all my life.” She named a few who have a very long history in town and shared how wonderful it is to hear their stories of life in West Unity.
Mayor Leu said he felt like his cousin was the right person to ask and she was immediately willing to volunteer her time to do this much needed service, in his words, “as part of her role as Chaplain.”
The list has grown as anyone can call the Village office to add to it. Dee calls each one and some have said no thank you, that they have family or someone who watches out for them, but most have been very happy to have her continue calling them.
During the Spring, when this first started, she was calling each one every week, but after a while she began calling some of them less often as that seemed more feasible.
At this point in time there are twenty seven on the list and that is a lot of phone calls to do every week. During the summer, she took a break from the calls and in the Fall started up again when the Mayor asked if she could do it again.
“Now I call people roughly once a week and not on a set schedule,” she said. “I keep touching base with them until they tell me I don’t need to, that way I am reaching the ones who need it.”
She is trying to keep it random so they don’t feel like they have to sit by the phone and be there on a specific day and at a specific time.
Custar is thrilled that Leu had the idea and says, “This is what makes our town, our town! We put action to our words and that is what we are doing. It has been a win win for everyone.” She sees her part as “a small piece, just making the phone calls.”
If someone she calls has a need, she alerts Mayor Leu or Chief Jones and they take care of getting that need met. She shared one of her favorite stories with the Village Council at the January 2021 council meeting, of how as she ended a call one day, she asked the lady on the other end of the line if she needed anything.
The lady at first said, “No, no. I’m fine,” but when Dee asked again, she laughed and said, “Well, I would kill for a cup of coffee. I’m all out of coffee.” Ten minutes later someone showed up at her door with a fresh package of coffee!
“I am just so proud of the leadership in our town and that they care so much,“ Custar said. “One person was having computer problems and Don put on his mask and did the trouble shooting to get it running.Both J.R. and Don understand the need. They are so compassionate.”
At the January Village council she added, “When I call these people, they are so appreciative of a town who cares enough. I hear it every time I call them, just how much it means to them to know that the town has got their back…that supports them, and cares.”
When Chief Jones was asked if this program or “ministry” has a name, he stated, “No. Basically it is about fulfilling our obligation as a community. You identify those who might be vulnerable and take care of them.
This is nothing more than what we should be doing!! COVID created a situation that made them more vulnerable, and identifying and monitoring it was just what needed to be done. Village officials are just enacting practices that enforce the village motto of ‘A Community That Cares’.”
Rebecca can be reached at publisher@thevillagereporter.com
