By EILEEN ZAFFIRO
Staff Writer

Last update: December 13, 2004

DAYTONA BEACH -- Before this year's hurricanes pummeled Florida, Vanesa Filippelli was just another 20-something trying to get through college and make it on her own.
By late September, she had become one of the scared people walking into Halifax Urban Ministries unable to pay bills and buy food.

"It took a lot out of me to even walk in there," Filippelli said. "I'm not the type of person who asks for help."

As the 25-year-old woman left the relief agency's Bay Street office, all she could think of were ways to say thank you for the bag of food she had just received, and how to help other people devastated by the storms. Six weeks later, she had sparked two food drives that generated enough to feed hundreds of people for weeks.

"The best thing I got out of it was helping them," Filippelli said.

She lost her financial footing somewhere between Hurricane Charley and Hurricane Jeanne. Three extended power outages caused her to lose too many days at work and too much of her food supply.

"She came in here crying and she was ready to go back out the door," said Leslie Scavone, a program coordinator with Halifax Urban Ministries. "She looked lost. She just stood there for a little bit and looked around. I saw her eyes tear up and grabbed her."

Filippelli doesn't recall crying, but acknowledges she was shaken up that day. Scavone talked to Filippelli in her office, and then "loaded her up with groceries."

"I said, 'Go eat yourself happy,' " Scavone quipped.

Filippelli insisted on giving back somehow, and Scavone simply replied: "Pay it forward," meaning do something kind for someone else.

Filippelli, who works at Friendly's Restaurant in Ormond Beach and at a chiropractor's office, started by delivering free appetizer coupons to Scavone. Then she sat down with her boss at Friendly's, Assistant Manager Sandra Bice, and said she wanted to do a lot more to help.

Together, Bice and Filippelli hit on a few ideas. One night in October, they used a program sanctioned by Friendly's to donate 10 percent of the business's earnings for a few hours of one night to Halifax Urban Ministries.

After talking with Scavone and Del Hillman, program coordinator for the Homeless Assistance Center in Daytona Beach, they wanted to do much more.

"We were just amazed at how many people are homeless and what these agencies do, and a light bulb went off," Bice said.

From Nov. 1-15, they held a food drive at the Granada Boulevard restaurant, encouraging people to drop off nonperishable items.

Bice also gave fliers advertising the food drive to Friendly's employees who have children in local schools. The fliers went up in classrooms, and the drive was advertised on at least one Parent Teacher Association Web site.

The kids, and their parents, came through in a big way.

"I hoped I'd get maybe 10 boxes of food," Bice said. "I never dreamed we'd get half a semi truck full from the schools."

The kids donated 6 1/2 pallets of food, which translates to a lot of nourishment.

"One bag of groceries (given to Filippelli) turned out to generate 400 to 500 bags of groceries," Hillman said.

Most of the food, which was delivered Nov. 15, went to Halifax Urban Ministries.

Bice and Filippelli also are juggling other fund-raisers, including some that are helping local troops in Iraq and their families. Their latest project is an angel tree with the names of 33 children who live with their parents in temporary housing provided by Family Renew Community.

Bice's staff members already have plucked off some names, and one will dress up as Santa when the gifts are delivered Sunday. Through Bice's encouragement, her employees also have culled unneeded clothing and toys from their homes and donated them to local agencies.

"We're not doing all this to make sales," Bice said. "It was to get out in the community. I didn't really get hurt by the hurricanes that bad, but there are people who lost everything. What I don't need they can have."

Bice and Filippelli say their giving won't end with the holidays.

"The stories (Scavone) and (Hillman) tell just make you want to cry," Bice said. "You don't see it day to day, but once I heard what's going on I feel like I didn't do enough. It's been a really tough year, and the community needs to knit together. There's always something in your house or a few dollars in your pocket you can give."