Keep Sandie Rainey’s passion for service alive

If you had the privilege of knowing Sandie, or knowing of the contributions she made to so many organizations townwide, or maybe not knowing her, but hearing her name in circles of people, you knew that she was the type of person who only wanted to give back. Sandie was my older sister, 11 years actually and she used to joke and say “no it’s just 10 years older” because it wasn’t a full year. Growing up, I always looked up to her. She wore the cool clothes and had the cool hair and was just the prettiest sister ever. When she moved out of the house, she would always make it a point to come back and either take me to the circus, or take me to a movie. She stayed an integral part of my life, even as hers changed, and she went on to get married and move away. Sandie had many loves and hobbies. Although I don’t think I would really call them hobbies because they were more like her life‘s purposes. She’d love to crochet, and when she could, she would make blankets and either give them to animal shelters, or bring them to nursing homes. She had an unbelievable passion for gardening, and before I moved to Florida, three years ago, and sold my house, my backyard was her play place. She would be there almost every weekend adding a new plant and educating me on how to take care of them. I had the most beautiful flower garden in the neighborhood. She even helped my neighbors with their yard. She knew all of this because at one point in her life, she owned a wholesale nursery when she lived in Tennessee. She was at her happiest place when she was with plants and flowers, or even weeds. When our mom passed, she moved back up to Massachusetts to be closer to us. She lived in a few different places, but they never felt like home to her until she moved to Chelmsford. There she found her “place” and her “people”. She started the Chelmsford branch of the Kindness Rocks Project. She would purchase all the supplies, the paints, the brushes, the decals, fabric, the markers, and the pens. At times she and I would go and troll the beaches of Marblehead to find the perfect rocks and fill up 5 gallon Home Depot buckets and drag them back to the car and dump them out, then go back to get some more. She would invite people from all over town, as well as in the complex in which she lived to join her in the clubhouse to paint. She loved to teach people the techniques of how to get the paint to stay or how to make a fine line, or how to seal them properly, so they would last a lifetime. Then she and the rock painters would go about the town and leave them in various places for people to find. Just a little bit of happiness to brighten someone’s day. She got involved with Friends of Roberts Field and Friendship Park where she created and maintained a flower garden which brought her back to her happy place again amongst the flowers and the weeds. She then discovered what she referred to as “her place”, The Lions Club. The Lions Clubs’ motto is, “We Serve”, and that is exactly what Sandie did. She served. She never asked for anything in return. Any person who needed anything, any project that needed to be done, she didn’t hesitate to jump feet first into. Sure she got tired at times, and would tell me she was wearing herself thin, but she would be right back out again the next day. She was also very actively involved with the Wish Project, and I’m sure were she still alive, there would be plenty more places and people that she would seek out to help. Because of this, I am creating this go fund me. I would like to keep the kindness, and the servitude of Sandie alive for a long time. She would love to know that money raised would go towards the groups she used to administrate, advocate, for, and love. Please help me do this in her memory as her name and kindness needs to be remembered for years to come.