Now in the helper method I go the current item being passed. But I cannot find a method to get the value of a field. The item class is Sitecore.Data.Items.Item
Sitecore.Data.Items.Item item = ...;
var f = item["field name"];
var f1 = item[0];//field id
var f2 = item[new ID("field id")];
var f3 = item.Fields["field name"];
var f4 = item.Fields[0];//field index
var f5 = item.Fields[new ID("field id")];