Since retiring in 2013, Harriet Turner has not slowed down.
She spends her time volunteering at the Ballas Boutique in Missouri Baptist Hospital; running Corner the Field, a garden she started at Temple Emanuel that donates its produce to those in need; and doing alterations for Project Dream Dress, part of the Adoptive Care Coalition that provides free prom dresses to foster teens.
For Turner, the decision to spend so much time volunteering is “just right the right thing to do.”
Rabbi Elizabeth Hersh has watched the garden become a core part of Temple Emanuel’s community. Despite the impressive work, Hersh tries to avoid recognizing Turner publicly for her leadership in the garden or for small tasks such as sewing up a fraying part of the Torah cover without being asked.
“If I say something on the bimah about Harriet, I feel like I’m almost embarrassing her,” Hersh said “It’s always, ‘No, it’s all of us in the community. It’s all of the volunteers at the hospital. It’s all the volunteers who are helping with the prom dresses.’ ”
ADVERTISEMENT
Turner’s commitment to humility and avoiding recognition goes back to her working night shifts at Missouri Baptist Hospital for 25 years doing whatever was necessary to care for patients. At 3 in the morning, no one is there to recognize you. Turner was driven by the idea that “thanks had to come from me.”
Before retiring, Turner listed everything she wanted to do with her time, and volunteering was near the top of the list.
Less than a year after retiring, a determined Turner wanted to start volunteering at the hospital’s Ballas Boutique gift shop. According to manager Laura Childers, Turner applied a few times for the position.
“All of a sudden, she came into me and she goes, ‘You know, I really want to volunteer, and I can’t get anybody to respond,’ ” Childers said. “So we got her processed and got her started that day.”
Childers said Turner is persistent and willing to take on any task that needs to get done regardless of what it might be or the thanks she could get. Her volunteer work has allowed for money to go toward projects in the hospital such as renovating the 30-year-old staff lockers that otherwise might not have happened.
Turner also continues to maintain the relationships she formed while working at the hospital. She volunteers alongside the former director of nursing who hired her. Each week, about 20 nurses check the boutique to see if Turner is working that day, hoping to catch up with an old colleague.
Turner’s retirement list also included gardening, which she had little experience with but nevertheless decided to try.
In fall 2020, Turner started Corner the Field behind Temple Emanuel on a 40-by-60-foot plot of land. All produce grown in the garden is donated to the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry. The garden’s name is a play on the mitzvah of pe’ah, which instructs farmers to leave the corners of their fields for the poor who need food.
Every Sunday, starting in the spring when seedlings are planted and until fall when the garden is “put to sleep” for the winter, Turner meets with her team of roughly 10 core volunteers. Working in the rain or under the sweltering St. Louis summer sun, they plant, weed, mow and harvest a variety of fruits and vegetables.
In the garden’s first year, they donated 100 pounds of produce; to date, they have given away more than 2,000. Each year they have been able to donate more, in part because Turner pours her time into researching what will grow best and altering what they plant. She is focused on helping as many people as possible, which means limiting mistakes and maximizing the amount of food produced.
“The mitzvah garden we have here at the temple is helping people who can’t afford food,” Turner said. “We’re offering good nutrition.”
In addition to helping the food insecure community in St. Louis, the garden has further strengthened bonds between volunteers. Rabbi Hersh said the garden is a source of inspiration for other synagogue members.
“Working\in the garden has influenced members to begin their own Corner of the Field,” Hersh said. “This garden has brought together many individuals and families to work together, [and] new friendships have formed.”
Turner helps new volunteers get involved with the garden, whether that person is a fellow retiree who can take advantage of the raised planting beds Turner made sure were installed, a student looking to earn community service hours or a religious school student who never gardened before.
“She has involved so many members of this congregation as volunteers,” Temple Emanuel Executive Director Andrew Goldfeder said. “Maybe they are not necessarily here picking fruit and helping in that capacity, but … she has found a position for anyone who wants to help out. That is a great example of her kindness and thinking of others.”
In 2020, a member of the Foster and Adoptive Care Coalition spoke at Temple Emanuel, moving Turner, whose own children are adopted, to volunteer as a seamstress.
Shelly Thomas-Benke, who works for the coalition, described Turner’s role as critical even though she spends most of her time at home relatively unseen hemming and altering multiple dresses at a time.
“Volunteers like Harriet are absolutely essential,” Thomas-Benke said. “Her sewing skills ensure every dress fits beautifully. She turns an ill-fitting gown into a 10/10 moment of confidence and joy.”
It is impossible for those who know Turner to not compliment her. She is flexible and willing to accommodate any situation that might arise.
“Harriet will do something, and she doesn’t even care if it’s acknowledged,” Ballas Boutique’s Childers said of Turner’s work there. “She’ll just do something and take over. She’s stunning.”
Turner encourages everyone to “get outside of yourself,” and volunteer. She has done so while continuing to be incredibly humble and unassuming, even as her work leaves a massive positive impact.
She remains baffled by being named an Unsung Hero, in part because she never expected it and believes others are more deserving.
“I don’t like attention,” Turner said. “I’m just not used to it.”
ADVERTISEMENT
