For the love of community — and pizza
By Michael Caballero
“If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
– African proverb
From the beginning of time, people have come together in community to support one another, to build and grow, to be stronger. Community has always been powerful, and never more so than today. With all the challenges of recent history and the fast-paced world we are living in, our communities — our villages — are what life is all about. And this rings true for our Specialized Housing community.
The success of our mission and model, which emphasize supported independence, depends on some form of community participation for our house members. As was true for so many people, we were forced to shift away from that community focus during the pandemic.
Recently, as we’ve been reclaiming our lifestyles, many of us at SHI have been appreciating the increased activity and revived community engagement of our house members. We have witnessed some house members take on new interests or new risks. We’ve seen old routines return despite the interruption.
We thought it would be inspiring to highlight, from time to time, some of those routines that have returned and help define our communities.
Since 2017, a group of Brookline SHI house members has been going to Pino’s Pizza on Saturdays, according to Katie Fortier, the current clinical director who has been connected to that house for many years. Katie explained that prior to 2017 the group of house members would go to Cafe Nick’s (or Cafe Nicholas) in Brookline until it closed, which is when the group needed to find a new Saturday hangout. The current program manager, Ann Picarella, suggested Pino’s Pizza because it was more affordable, and that’s all the convincing they needed. They agreed on Pino’s as their new Saturday lunch destination, and as Katie said, “The rest is history.”
One Saturday this past summer, we were fortunate to get an invitation to join the group. It was a modest-sized group, as some of the folks were away with family, but those who were around were on schedule and ready to head over to Pino’s.
Usually, the group sticks together and will determine how to get to the pizza parlor based on the weather. Rain or snow does not stop these friends. If the weather cooperates, they will often make the walk down Beacon Street to Cleveland Circle. If there’s snow, they will forgo the pilgrimage and take the T from Washington Square.
On this particular day, the group split because someone needed a ride due to an injury, so half of us took the T and the other half traveled by car.
Pino’s is not a large place, but there are several booths and seats, enough to accommodate this group. Walking in, taking in the amazing aromas of pizza and other Italian food items, I immediately could see why they enjoyed coming every week. They were greeted with hellos from behind the counter, and without hesitation, the orders were made. Not surprisingly, many of the orders were the same. In fact, “the usual” was ordered by a few folks. They paid and went to their seats, and based on how the folks moved from one point to the next, there was no hesitation about where to sit. It’s as if they had reservations.
Within minutes, their orders were ready. Usually, the Pino’s staff call out the order for customers to retrieve, but for this group, their food was brought out to them by a member of the kitchen with a wide smile. This is special treatment by the folks at Pino’s, and they were clearly just taking care of their dedicated customers. In fact, the folks at Pino’s are so accustomed to serving this SHI group that the orders were even made to accommodate certain requests. For example, one SHI member enjoys half of her sandwich at Pino’s, and likes to take the other half home for later. Well, one half of her sandwich was brought to her on a plate, and the other half was wrapped up and in a small bag, ready to be taken home. Now that’s service!
The conversations ranged between the three tables occupied by this group but all seemed at home and at ease. At one point, a local police officer came in and chatted with the group, and seemed to know them well. Sure enough, Katie Fortier confirmed that he’s usually in there around the same time on Saturdays.
It’s a special place, and it’s nice to know that our SHI members contribute to the feeling of home and community. Adam, one of the residents, shared while enjoying his calzone, “I like coming here every Saturday with my friends; it’s a fun thing to do.” Another member, Andrew, added, “Yeah, I love their pizza!”
When asked about the weekly visit from this SHI group, one of the Pino’s managers said, “We love this group; we see them every week, and we enjoy having them here. They’re part of what we do.”
What more could one ask for? That’s how it should be. These types of stories of how SHI community members are living their lives in the community, participating together and individually, represent who we are. We look forward to sharing more stories like this to demonstrate the importance of neighborhood communities to the success of SHI programs.
