Tag: Volunteer

  • Debbie Hatzieleftheriadis made history in Brookline, and hasn’t stopped giving back

    Debbie Hatzieleftheriadis made history in Brookline, and hasn’t stopped giving back

    Debbie Hatzieleftheriadis holds her Black Excellence on the Hill award. Photo by Eli Pekelny

    Everything fell into place after Debbie Hatzieleftheriadis saw an ad in the paper.

    The ad was recruiting people for the Brookline Police Department. At the time, the mother of five was coaching her kids’ sports teams and serving as the president of Brookline High School’s Parent Teacher Organization. 

    “I thought, ‘Maybe I could do it,’” Hatzieleftheriadis said. “I didn’t take it seriously.”

    After passing the police entrance exam and becoming an officer in 1998, Hatzieleftheriadis participated in a leadership initiative for high schoolers, led the anti-drug DARE program and ran a youth basketball camp. 

    “I loved my job,” Hatzieleftheriadis said. “I absolutely loved it.”

    Hatzieleftheriadis, who retired in 2014 following a back injury, made town history as Brookline’s first Black female police officer, an accolade that would pave the road to her receiving the 2026 Black Excellence on the Hill award.

    The award honored over 100 Black trailblazers in February, all nominated by representatives and senators from across Massachusetts. Hatzieleftheriadis was nominated by State Rep. Tommy Vitolo, whose district includes part of Brookline.

    “Debbie has paved the way for a new set of police officers who represent a far broader spectrum of people in our community,” Vitolo said. “She’s since retired from the police force, but she hasn’t retired from contributing to our town.”

    The 64-year-old currently serves as a town Constable, a Town Meeting member, and a Parks and Recreation Commissioner. At one point, Hatzieleftheriadis drove buses for the Senior Center. 

    Moreover, she is the former president of Friends of Larz Anderson Park, a local group that defends and highlights Hatzieleftheriadis’s favorite park.

    “Anything that I do, I don’t do it for the praise,” Hatzieleftheriadis said. “I do it because I care.”

    How she came to be

    As a young girl, Hatzieleftheriadis lived in Boston before moving to Brookline. The daughter of a Black father and a white mother, Hatzieleftheriadis described Boston as having “a lot of racial tension.” 

    When Hatzieleftheriadis’ single mother heard about the quality of the schools in Brookline, the family moved into a rent-controlled apartment in Brookline Village. 

    In kindergarten, Hatzieleftheriadis met Tracey Barney. To this day, Barney considers themselves to be “besties.” 

    “Everybody knows Debbie, and everybody loves her,” Barney said. “They think she’s a wonderful person. You never hear anybody say anything about her ever.”

    In high school, Hatzieleftheriadis played basketball, softball and, above all else, soccer. She called herself an “all-scholastic, all-American soccer player.” 

    She graduated in 1980 and was inducted to the Brookline High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2024 for her achievements in sports. Now she’s on the board that selects the inductees for the BHS Athletic Hall of Fame.

    These days, Hatzieleftheriadis’ sports of choice are yoga and weightlifting.

    “It took me a little while to embrace the slower, meditative stuff, because I’ve always been really busy,” Hatzieleftheriadis said. “It gives me that opportunity to slow down and really rest and really cherish my body. I’m used to beating it up.”

    Hatzieleftheriadis isn’t the only athlete — or public servant — in her family. Two of her five children are firefighters. One of her eight grandchildren plays hockey at BHS. 

    “I go to all his games,” Hatzieleftheriadis said with pride.

    Hatzieleftheriadis’ second eldest son, Harry Hatzieleftheriadis, is one of the firefighters in the family. He also owns a pizza shop called Ziggy’s in Brighton. Harry said he and his family members have always known about Hatzieleftheriadis’ selflessness.

    “She can’t sit still,” Harry said. “Whether it’s the Town Meeting, whether it’s PTO stuff, whether it’s working at the Senior Center, she’s always doing stuff that is not self-serving… That’s really what makes her so special.”

    Family is important to Hatzieleftheriadis. That’s why, she said, it hurts when she sees them targeted because of their ethnicity.

    Diversity in the police force

    Like other members of her family, Hatzieleftheriadis has experienced racial profiling. When she was a kid, people would clutch their bags as she walked by. Sometimes people would even follow her around stores.

    “When you’re a person of color, you have to work harder, and that’s just a fact,” Hatzieleftheriadis said. “We face things that white people don’t face.”

    When George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis in 2020, Hatzieleftheriadis had already retired. She said that she wished she could have been able to help address the distrust between civilians and police that continues to this day.

    “There are no good police officers that agree with what happened with George Floyd or with police brutality,” Hatzieleftheriadis said.

    Diversity of all kinds at the police station is one of the ways that tension can be lessened, Hatzieleftheriadis said.

    “Because of the world, Black people traditionally can be afraid of police officers,” Hatzieleftheriadis said. “To see a brown face come to your door and to understand the camaraderie there and to be able to be empathetic there — I think it’s really important to have that.”

    To Hatzieleftheriadis, we’re all really alike. 

    “When you strive to be the best that you can be and you achieve things, other people see that,” Hatzieleftheriadis said.

    This story is part of a partnership between Brookline.News and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

  • Revere Veterans Food Pantry sees a rise in need

    Revere Veterans Food Pantry sees a rise in need

    Every first Wednesday of the month, residents drive to the back of the American Legion building in Revere to receive their share of canned vegetables, pasta, rice and meat from the Veterans Food Pantry. That was no different on a recent day — except a steady incline of need in the line.

    “[The need] has steadily increased in the last couple of months,” said Donna Dreeszen, the pantry’s founder, in an interview. “We have a lot of younger veterans that we typically didn’t have before.”

    Dreeszen started the pantry on an upstairs floor of the American Legion building in 2012 with just 37 clients; today that number is nearly 500, she said.

    Food insecurity among veterans has become a pressing issue since the global pandemic and the government shutdown in the fall. More than 21,000 recipients of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in Massachusetts are veterans, according to the state’s website.

    Dreeszen said she founded the pantry after seeing many veterans struggle with food insecurity. But when the pantry first opened, few people came. She said she worked hard to persuade veterans to take advantage of the service.

    “I would ask the veterans, ‘Why didn’t you come to the food pantry?’ and they were like, ‘I don’t need it,’ even though some did,” said Dreeszen recently as she pored over a spreadsheet of the pantry’s statistics.

    Eventually, she said, the veterans began to come. Danny Hernandez, the pantry’s manager, said he and his staff began using targeted advertising to reach veterans, and the results have led to an increase in the number of people using the pantry.

    On the eve of the monthly food pantry, Hernandez, the staff and volunteers start preparing for distribution day. This includes designating specific areas to sort the food. The next day, volunteers arrive early, around 6 a.m., to receive deliveries from The Greater Boston Food Bank and stock large shopping bags provided by Wegmans. The pantry also receives fresh greens and other produce from Olivia’s Organics in Chelsea, said Dreeszen.

    Volunteers say they are driven to help. “It was only natural to be able to volunteer and give back,’’ said Carol Pizziferri, a volunteer for the past 10 years whose father served in World War II.

    She said that when the pantry was upstairs it was challenging for both volunteers and clients to get the bags to their cars. But now, the drive-up system has made things much better, especially for the elderly clients, she added.

    “It’s much easier than waiting for people, especially upstairs,” said Pizziferri. “And so now… basically, [you] come in your car, [we] put the bags in, and they check you off and see you later.”

    William Reedy, a volunteer who is also a veteran, said the pantry does what it can for the people it serves. “We all help one another,” Reedy said. “[If] anybody needs anything, they can always call us.”