Lois Stevens shows off her bell after being surprised by friends and fellow volunteers, including Nancy Masland, second from left.

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The recipient of this week's Ben's Bell is Lois Stevens, whose near-tireless volunteer work has made life easier for so many people.

Stevens was nominated by her friend, Nancy P. Masland, who described her as "incredibly giving."

"Lois is really someone who can be counted on," Masland said. "She's very, very special."

Stevens' list of good deeds began slowly about 15 years ago, when she was singing with the choir at St. Francis in the Foothills United Meth-odist Church. The director happened to also work at the Health Education Project at El Rio Community Health Center and one day asked Stevens for help.

That's when she began teaching health and life-skills classes in shelters and to jail inmates, with the idea that helping them understand good health would help them improve their lives in many ways. She also began helping the project with a lot of different work around the office.

That soon led to regular visits to Southside Presbyterian Church to help with large-scale efforts to feed the homeless. The work started out as once monthly, but grew to be twice weekly and sometimes involves 200 hungry people.

She's now involved in another effort to feed the homeless, too, getting up at 4 a.m. and working with others to take coffee, doughnuts, sandwiches and snack packs every Sunday to a university-area park.

In between has been work with Borderlinks, the Pima County Interfaith Council and other programs at St. Francis, including becoming the de facto seamstress for basically every theater production staged in the past decades — "There's been a LOT of costumes," the 76-year-old admits.

The volunteer work picked up after she retired. She moved here in 1989 from Massachusetts, trying to escape the chilly, wet weather that affected her arthritis. A special-education teacher her whole life, she returned to school and earned her nursing degree, then worked at Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging.

Another reason she became more involved was Masland, after the two met through church. They became such good friends volunteering together that they now even share a home.

Masland is full of praise for her friend, calling her a "true giver."

In addition to all her work for the less-fortunate, Stevens is incredibly kind to fellow parishioners, Masland said, and her family. She even asked her friend to join her company, Nancy P. Masland & Associates, which tries to find school and college placements for gifted or special-needs students and identifies alternatives to juvenile detention for troubled youth.

Stevens so perfectly exemplifies the spirit of community service that Masland asked her to be the service volunteer specialist for the company. "She is constantly thinking of others," Masland said. "She just radiates the spirit of giving."

Both women have been familiar with the Ben's Bells program since it began because Ben's family attended St. Francis as well. So when Masland began thinking recently of a way to honor her friend, the project immediately came to mind.

The folks with the bells quickly agreed and worked with Masland to arrange a surprise celebration at the women's home on Tuesday. They all met up outside and then Masland told Stevens she had a visitor. Stevens said she was shocked when she stepped outside.

"If they would have told me, I would have dressed a little differently," she joked.

She said the award was a great honor, especially because of the connection to Ben's family.

"I just feel very, very honored and humbled to receive this," she said.

Her motivation for volunteering, she said, comes from a childhood spent watching her mother set an altruistic example.

"My mom taught Sunday school, she volunteered with the American Red Cross during the war. That's how I learned to knit, making squares for afghans. I learned how to make argyle socks, too. I wasn't really good, but I made a few pairs."

The family also took care of a neighbor who'd developed brain cancer, she said.

"We used to take her meals over to her and sometimes I'd do a little cleaning, things like that," she said. "It's what you do. People need help and you help them."

Besides, she said, there's a great sense of satisfaction in helping others.

For example, when she feeds the homeless, she said, "some mornings they get that coffee and say, 'Oh you saved my life.' And Sunday's a free day on my phone, so I make it available to people and sometimes families call back and say, 'Thank you so much; I haven't talked to them in six years.' "

There's a poignancy about the belling, though, because Stevens has been sick the past few months and hasn't been able to do all her normal work. That's part of the reason Masland wanted to honor her.

"When Lois received this award, she said, 'I feel worthwhile again,' " Masland said. "This means more to me than I can possibly tell you."