For many people, retirement means an end to all the hard work. For 80-year-old Daria Bernstein, it was just the beginning.
Since leaving her job in 2006, Bernstein has volunteered at Little Flower Catholic Church as the parish president for St. Vincent de Paul, a church-based program where volunteers provide clothing, fresh and non-perishable goods to communities in need. Bernstein brings daily food donations to families throughout Hallandale Beach, Hollywood and Dania Beach.
“After retirement I thought, jeez, this is boring. I have to find something to do!” she says. “Then one day at Mass I heard the announcer say they were looking for men to help deliver for St. Vincent de Paul. I quickly called up and said, ‘What is a man able to do that I’m not?’ And when they said carry the bags I said, ‘good, I can handle that.’ And I’ve been handling it for 20 years.”
When she isn’t bringing donations to the community, Bernstein volunteers at events put on by Little Flower Catholic School, including the annual carnival.
“I really don’t know what we’d do without her,” says the Rev. Javier Barreto, pastor of LFCS. “She’s like the Mother Theresa of our parish.”
Bernstein, however, is quick to deflect, crediting her fellow parishioners as the source of her success.
“Without their donations and their help, I wouldn’t be able to do what I do,” she says.
Bernstein grew up in Wallingford, Connecticut, with two sisters, three brothers and a strong belief in community service. She went to school in St. Louis, Missouri for seven years, and then Washington, D.C., where she joined the army and earned a master’s degree in nursing. After getting married in 1975, she moved to Florida, where she worked as the nursing director at Jackson Memorial Hospital, overseeing about 1,300 other employees.
“I always tried to say, ‘what would Jesus do,’ for my patients and staff,” she says. “What would he do? How would he act? How would he treat these people? That’s my modus operandi.”
When Bernstein first started volunteering, St. Vincent de Paul’s LFC branch was much smaller, delivering only two or three packages per day.
Today it’s an average of 10.
In February alone, the organization helped feed 750 people.
Bernstein delivers on weekends and weekdays, to families located in her assigned area: Hollywood from the ocean to I-95, and from Washington to Sheridan Street. However, she often leaves her jurisdiction to do food deliveries in Hallandale Beach and Dania Beach.
“The churches in West Park, they all have a branch, but there’s nobody in Hallandale or Dania, so we try to fill in the gaps,” she says.
“I’ve known her for 25 years,” says Mark Kearns, a Knights of Columbus member and fellow volunteer. “Her family has a history of giving back.”
Bernstein and Kearns have worked together on various church events, including the Little Flower carnival, spaghetti dinners and the annual Lent fish fry.
“Her brother used to joke about locking us both in a room to see who would come out alive, and my answer was always her,” says Kearns. “You can argue with Daria and get mad, or you can argue with Daria and do it her way.”
For Bernstein, it’s all just giving back to the community that gives so much to her.
Through a food drive hosted on the first week of every month, parishioners bring in canned foods, diapers, toilet paper and other non-perishables. Many people make monetary donations as well, which Bernstein uses for perishable foods like milk and bread.
“We do all of this with almost exclusively what the parish gives us,” she says. “We’re really fortunate.”
Bernstein even involves students at the school, whether through the food drive or by volunteering to help with deliveries.
“She’ll ask the kids to help her stock up the pantry or distribute deliveries, if they’re interested, and just by watching her and learning what she does, it inspires them,” says second grade teacher Sandra Kearns. “It makes them want to do the same.”
Bernstein was honored for her work in 2018, when the Archdiocese of Miami awarded her a Jubilaeum Pin in recognition of years of community service. For Bernstein, though, her motivation has never been recognition, but everyone she’s helped over the years.
“I know them as real people, and they deserve the same as you and me,” she says. “That’s all the motivation I’ll ever need.”
