By Ron Hayes
You know about the caregivers, those noble souls who care for the sick and disabled, the elderly, the needy. But who cares for them?
Where are the caregivers’ caregivers?
As temperatures rose toward the low 90s early one recent Saturday morning, they were in Boynton Beach, painting Charlie Robinson’s house.
The previous day they had painted the house gray, the trim white. Now these 18 men were back to touch up the wrought iron security door, the window frames and front porch railing.
They are members of Lambda Alpha Alpha, the graduate chapter of Omega Psi Phi, an African American fraternity founded at Howard University in 1911. Martin Luther King Sr. was a member; Langston Hughes and Count Basie, too.
Florida Atlantic University has an undergraduate chapter, but these men, most in their 40s and 50s, are well beyond their college years.
In 2020, they initiated their Curb Appeal project to paint homes and upgrade the landscaping of seniors caring for family members in Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Boca Raton.
The caregiver
“My wife broke her hip three months ago,” Charlie Robinson said, standing under the sweltering sun to marvel at all these much younger men beautifying his home without pay.