NILES — Sometimes it does not take a lot to make a big difference. This has been the core value of Niles resident Sandra “Sandy” Klekowski, whose efforts to help others have not gone unnoticed by other area residents.   

As a member of the Greater Niles Senior Center board and a member of Hope Community Church, Klekowski aims to find new ways to help a person in need and her efforts extend far beyond the reach of her friends and family.

For more than 15 years, Klekowski has put together care packages and carried them down to Riverfront Park from her home in the Four Flags Plaza.

The packages are destined for those in the park with no place to call home and contain fleece blankets, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrush and any other necessities she can put together. During the winter season, she visits the women’s ministry closet at Wesley United Methodist, called Evy’s Closet and picks up coats to include with the packages. Klekowski drops the items off about once a week in the park.

On the occasion when she can’t find anyone in the park who need the packages, she places them under the Broadway and Main Street bridges. When she returns to dole out the next round of care packages, they will inevitably be gone. 

“I give back. I like giving back. This community has done so much for me,” Klekowski said.

Klekowski said she has noticed other Niles residents with similar projects or goals to lend a hand to others. It is this giving spirit that she said has inspired her to help those who she saw at the park who were struggling.

Klekowski also gives credit to her church community and residents of Four Flags Plaza who rally together to contribute donations, including handmade scarves and hats.

“I’m just the one who brings them down there,” Klekowski said. “It’s not just one person [responsible for the care packages]. I shouldn’t be the one be picked out for this, because I see so much [good]. During our Christmas party [at Four Flags Plaza] I can’t tell you how many people have given me things so that I can make up more bags.”

Because she drops the donations off under the bridges, Klekowski does not always get a “thank you.” On one occasion, Klekowski said she saw a man wearing one of the handmade caps that she herself had made. When Klekowski approached the man, she told him that she had hand knit the hat he was wearing.

“He gave me a big hug,” she said.

As a new year starts, Klekowski said she hopes to see some solution for those left with no place to call home. While she enjoys helping others, she said she hopes to eventually see some sort of warming center or refuge for the homeless available in Niles. While she said she is aware of homeless shelters in Benton Harbor and South Bend, she said she hopes to one day see something local.

“We need to have some kind of a place for them to stay overnight,” Klekowski said.

Growing up in Chicago, Klekowski’s mother, Bernice Klekowski, and her grandmother, Stella Cielinski, shared her giving spirit. Her grandmother Stella would often cook up a big pot of soup and go out and distribute it to the needy. It was an act of kindness that Klekowski said her mother would carry on.

As for Klekowski, she sought to help others with another skill set.

“I am not much of a cook,” Klekowski said.

Klekowski hand knits some of the items found in the care packages and has also started her own homemade card program at Hope Community Church, where she teaches people how to make their own cards. The program is free and Klekowski donates all the supplies for use, asking only that those who participate donate one of their homemade cards to the church. Hope Community Church has a card ministry program that distributes them to community members whose lives could be brightened by a homemade card.

Klekowski said her family first started visiting Niles from Chicago on a regular basis when they purchased a house near Barron Lake in 1959.

“I just always felt this [Niles] was a wonderful place,” Klekowski said. “I love coming here.”

In the early 2000s, Klekowski left her job as a legal secretary in Chicago to help care for her mother, Bernice, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

Klekowski later became involved with Hope Community Church and said she saw many efforts to help the Niles community, whether it was their own congregants or other families in need. For Klekowski, it confirmed that she had found the right home and encouraged her to complete her own efforts to help others.

Director of the Four Flags Plaza, Mickey Hutchison, said Klekowski often goes out of her way to help others.

“Sandy has lived in my building for several years. She does a lot of good for a lot of people,” Hutchison said. “She is just a lovely person.”

This year, Klekowski urged others to notice those who may need help around their community, whether it means stopping for a moment to lend a hand to a neighbor or going to their own church or community center to see how they can help.

“There is so much for people to do and if they just keep trying to do a little bit, it is all going to work,” Klekowski said. “There are a lot of great people in Niles.”