In Memoriam: Grateful for Thomas

God’s Love mourns the passing of our wonderful volunteer, Thomas D. Brunner. Below are remarks from Stephen Covello who worked closely with Thomas over the years. We will all miss Thomas.

About five or so years ago I read an article in the New York Times about the value of gratitude and how important it is to say thank you as often as we can to as many as we can.

It was after reading that article I thought it was time for God’s Love We Deliver to design and implement a program which soon became known as The Gratitude Project. Volunteers call donors just to say thank you. There’s no pretense, no ask, nothing more than: ‘Thank you. We appreciate you.'”

Once all the details for the program were in place I reached out to our volunteer services department to begin searching for volunteers who could help and would be interested in such a project. Not soon after I made the request I heard back from our volunteer department telling me they had a volunteer candidate who had expressed interest in helping and would I like to meet him? I immediately said YES!

My initial impression of Thomas was this man is kind of “crunchy” with a tough exterior but I, and the entire God’s Love team, soon learned that beneath that tough exterior was a wonderfully kind, compassionate, often spicy (which I personally loved), tender and incredibly generous.  Soon after our first meeting Thomas and I became fast and furious friends and I will miss him terribly.

From this point forward I will now refer to our program as The Thomas D. Brunner Gratitude Project!

Thomas brought his best to God’s Love, and with that, his immense skills. Not only was he wonderful on the phone with our supporters, but he single-handedly designed our entire Circle of Love seating system for Love Rocks NYC, our annual rock & roll benefit concert. One of the Executive Producers told me that Thomas will never be forgotten and has a forever place in the Love Rocks NYC family. She then proceeded to tell me they will be underwriting a Tile for Love in Thomas’s honor which will be displayed in the God’s Love We Deliver kitchen.

Thomas, you made such a difference here at God’s Love and there are so many of us who will miss you.

In the eternal words of En Vogue, “What a man, what a man, what a mighty good man!”