Woman able to give back goodwill she once received
By Darleen Principe darleen@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers INVESTMENT RETURNED- Irene Brennick of Simi Valley stands in front of a Hospice Tree of Life at the Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center, where she is the community service director.

For Irene Brennick, the season of giving is a year-round occasion.

The 48-year-old Simi Valley resident is a board member of the Conejo Hospice. She spends weekends visiting inmates at the Ventura County Jail. And on a daily basis, she manages more than 600 volunteers as the community service director at Los Robles Hospital and Medical Center.

"I don't think I could ever have just a regular job," Brennick said. "That's why I wanted this job here. I love volunteering. I was helped so much by charities years ago. . . . I used to be a recipient."

Brennick knows what it's like to live with her family in a onebedroom apartment, be on welfare and not have enough money to buy food, clothes or Christmas presents for her daughters.

She left a bad marriage in Florida and moved to California in 1988 to start over, just before her second daughter, Jenna, was born. Her first daughter, Amanda, was only 3.

"She's a single mom, and that can be very hard with two young kids around the holidays," said Amanda, now 22. "We were mostly poor, but she never let us know. We always had food on the table and presents under the tree."

At any given time, Brennick was receiving help from as many as 11 different nonprofit groups, just to be able to raise her girls without worrying them about their family's financial situation.

"People would come and do things for us through nonprofits and our church," she said. "They would just show up at the house and put up a tree, but the kids never knew where it came from.

"I just couldn't believe that people who didn't know me or would never know me would go to so much trouble just to make us happier," Brennick said. "I thought that was just amazing."

Brennick persisted throughout the hard times and fulfilled her goal of getting off of welfare by the time Jenna was in first grade. With the continued help of charities, she was able to provide for her family and still finish college.

"I wanted to become a fund raiser," she said. "I think it's something I've always wanted to do. When I was young I used to walk around, talk to God and say that one day I would raise money for the poor."

Brennick earned a specialized bachelor's degree in recreation from California State University Northridge and used it to get her first full-time job doing charity work with United Way.

All along, she made sure to teach her daughters to be selfless and thankful for their blessings. She involved them in many charity events while they were growing up and showed them that there was always more help to be given.

"As far back as I can remember, my sister and I were taught that Christmas is about giving, not taking," Amanda said. "Every holiday season growing up we spent our time doing walks for abortion or repainting a church, feeding the homeless or adopting a family for the holidays.

"That was her one request. We're able to survive on our own now, and we want to make sure that we can help other people . . . to give other families a chance to have what we have."

As adults, both Amanda and Jenna, 19, have followed in their mother's footsteps and taken personal interests in public service. Amanda also works at Los Robles Hospital, and Jenna- a college student pursuing nursing- wants to eventually work with Doctors Without Borders, an international organization which provides emergency medical care in countries affected by armed conflict, epidemics and lack of healthcare.

Still, Amanda said she's amazed at all the things her mother takes upon herself to do, like regularly volunteer at the homeless soup kitchen, give gifts to other single mothers, organize food donations for the needy, take pledges at KCET and visit inmates on Sunday mornings through her church.

"Sometimes it's a little scary because you don't know what (the inmates) have done," Irene Brennick said. "But who else is going to talk to these people? They know they've screwed up, and they already feel bad. What they need is a message of hope that things can change."

Along with everything else she does on her own time, Brennick's job at Los Robles Hospital also gives her the opportunity to tie her charitable interests into her work.

The Assistance League of Southern California, which donates teddy bears to the children in the hospital every month, is the same organization that once took her own daughters shopping for new clothes and school supplies when they were very young.

This Christmas, Brennick is endeavoring to raise money for the Conejo Hospice by setting up the Hospice Tree of Life at the hospital. People who give donations to the hospice receive a star to decorate the tree in memory of a loved one.

"She makes everyone's Christmas an amazing time," Amanda said. "She never expects anything in return- just a smile on someone's face."