Hospice Volunters
Festival of Trees 2004
Entry in my Great Grandmother’s diary…
“Got up this morning to finish chopping the wood. Scrubbed the upstairs floors and saw to the chickens. Puttered around a bit then beat a few carpets. Checked the rain gauge then pulled a few weeds while I was out. Then I woke the men for breakfast.”
My great grandmother was a happy woman…not because her work was easy, but because it was a work of love. It was honest. It was needed. It helped her to give…
And that’s why we’re here tonight. A work of love.
Spoke with a lady yesterday …new to our community. She and her husband have lived and worked in New York, San Francisco, the Minneapolis area and have gained a national reputation for their work. In her words, “We’ve never seen anything like Jacksonville. Some of the places we’ve lived had friendly people, some had a great arts community, some had a stimulating intellectual environment…but this is the first place we’ve been that has all of these things.” The thing that impressed her most are the large number of people involved in philanthropic causes.
We are truly blessed to live in an area where our best movers and shakers are also the best givers.
Wonderful article in Sunday’s paper about how Bette Jackson and her friends first brought the Festival of Trees to Jacksonville.
The Joy of Giving Love --- Group of students at Triopia some 20 years ago…formed a Volunteer Squad…got huge and wonderful. Then they got a grant. Killed it. --- A church I knew.. small. Struggled. Bake sales, potlucks, all work on church done with volunteer help. Then tragedy struck.. a loyal member died and left the church around a million bucks. The spirit died. --- Mentioned to my seventh-graders this year…arguing.. 30,000 kids will die tonight. The next day a little blonde boy with very thick glasses came up with an idea… He said that God told him he was supposed to do something. They are. ---Brian.. clowns… nursing homes.
Think of all the things you do…and of course you can’t….but give it a try anyone. I’d bet my decorated Christmas tree that the things you enjoy most are those for which you are paid nothing. And speaking of my decorated Christmas tree… (my tree)
Performing Arts Camp. .. we have the lowest ratio of staff to campers of any camp I know of. Staff members are literally standing in line to work there. Why? Because we don’t pay a thing.
And I don’t buy the theory that we volunteer our time..that we are altruistic.. just to relieve our guilt. It’s bigger than that. We don’t feel that guilty. There’s just an outside chance that Christ might have been right. It may truly be more blessed to give than to receive.
Blessed to be raised by giving parents in a giving community. Dad: spanked: 10cent vs. 15cent coke. Fire: $500
Albert Sweitzer
Matt..baritone
Good friend..Dr. Thomas Bunting..Pike County.. elderly population… basically spent the last ten years of his practice telling families that their loved ones had died in the next room. He told me that the main reason to retired and moved to New Mexico was “America is a great place to live. But when it comes to dying, we have a lot to learn.”
Woodhaven Hospice has the most glorious mission… to make the final chapter of our lives as sweet as the others.
My very good friend was sitting with his mother a year ago March in J’ville. She was under hospice care. Her final goal..Easter baskets for each of her 12 grandchildren. Because of hospice, she finished the last one this morning..her morphine pills allow her to have one coherent hour out of five. The last basket is done. She died in a room full of people who love her…her Easter baskets are finished.
There are those who actively work for Hospice and there are those of us who contribute…. All are equally valuable…all are equally needed.
Conway Twitty
Sunday on C-Span.. interviewing the press secretaries to the last five Presidents.. Lisa Capote, Hillary Clinton’s press secretary, quoted the motto that her staff tried to live by: “Service is the rent we pay for living.” Thanks for paying rent tonight.
The first Christmas was a work of love….God’s. And Bette and the others who began this project would agree that this is still God’s work of love. PAGE
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