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- May 24, 2021
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What things do you do for others this time of year? Please share if you desire. I will go first.
As a member of a local Rotary Club I have had the privilege of helping others, sometimes personally, and at others through donations to to projects the Rotary club supports around the world.
One of the more meaningful to me, on a personal level, is the distribution of food and gifts to Cancer Patients and their families for Christmas. This started about thirty years ago, and for many years my dad would come with me to make deliveries a week or so before Christmas. At that time we took a few presents to each family and a little food for Christmas. We could easily put the food and gifts for up to six or seven families in our suburban and off we went. (This project is a coordinated effort between our club, the Mountain States Tumor Institute, who identifies the patients who need our help to provide a Christmas to their families, and several local stores, such as Albertsons who donate Turkeys, Hams, and other foodstuffs to us. Rotary members provide gifts for each family.)
Over the years, the amount of food and gifts has grown to the point where we can barely squeeze two to three families into my pickup or if the weather is bad, my wife's CRV. One of my favorite things is going to the pickup location and seeing all of the other Rotarians who have just spent the last hour packing the food into boxes and sorting the gifts. We put the gifts and food onto carts and wheel them to the cars and load them.
Over the years there have been both good and bad visits. Good when the patient is doing well and the worst was one where the mother had died a few hours before we arrived. My father and I both wept after we were back in our Suburban and I had to pull over as I do not multi-task well.
Yesterday's visits were both great. I was flying solo, as I had hired a caregiver for Resa for the morning. My first visit was to an older woman who has terminal cancer. She lives alone now as her husband, who had cared for her the first time she had cancer, had died after getting cancer himself after she was determined to be in complete remission. We talked for some time and I left when she appeared to be getting tired. She is not at all concerned that her cancer is terminal and seems ready to see her husband, who had been gone now for twelve years.
My second visit was to a loving family. The parents are nearly my age, and the adult son who lives with them is the patient. He, like many of the patients I meet, is completely bald. Even though he is in treatment, he helped me carry in the boxes of food and gifts. I had to take the heavy ones, and at nearly 76, I think I will arrange for a grandson to go with me next year! whew.
We talked and laughed together for well over an hour and the father gave me a beautiful home made ornament that he had finished making just the night before. When I left, I was so energized! The mom said to be sure to take a look at the sign next to her door. I did and had a good laugh as I took this photo.
I hope you will consider sharing some of the things you all do to help others. I think these things are meaningful to those we help, l know they are meaningful to those of us who do. This is the time when I begin to understand the statement, "It is better to give than to receive."
Merry Christmas to my Pricescope friends,
Wink
As a member of a local Rotary Club I have had the privilege of helping others, sometimes personally, and at others through donations to to projects the Rotary club supports around the world.
One of the more meaningful to me, on a personal level, is the distribution of food and gifts to Cancer Patients and their families for Christmas. This started about thirty years ago, and for many years my dad would come with me to make deliveries a week or so before Christmas. At that time we took a few presents to each family and a little food for Christmas. We could easily put the food and gifts for up to six or seven families in our suburban and off we went. (This project is a coordinated effort between our club, the Mountain States Tumor Institute, who identifies the patients who need our help to provide a Christmas to their families, and several local stores, such as Albertsons who donate Turkeys, Hams, and other foodstuffs to us. Rotary members provide gifts for each family.)
Over the years, the amount of food and gifts has grown to the point where we can barely squeeze two to three families into my pickup or if the weather is bad, my wife's CRV. One of my favorite things is going to the pickup location and seeing all of the other Rotarians who have just spent the last hour packing the food into boxes and sorting the gifts. We put the gifts and food onto carts and wheel them to the cars and load them.
Over the years there have been both good and bad visits. Good when the patient is doing well and the worst was one where the mother had died a few hours before we arrived. My father and I both wept after we were back in our Suburban and I had to pull over as I do not multi-task well.
Yesterday's visits were both great. I was flying solo, as I had hired a caregiver for Resa for the morning. My first visit was to an older woman who has terminal cancer. She lives alone now as her husband, who had cared for her the first time she had cancer, had died after getting cancer himself after she was determined to be in complete remission. We talked for some time and I left when she appeared to be getting tired. She is not at all concerned that her cancer is terminal and seems ready to see her husband, who had been gone now for twelve years.
My second visit was to a loving family. The parents are nearly my age, and the adult son who lives with them is the patient. He, like many of the patients I meet, is completely bald. Even though he is in treatment, he helped me carry in the boxes of food and gifts. I had to take the heavy ones, and at nearly 76, I think I will arrange for a grandson to go with me next year! whew.
We talked and laughed together for well over an hour and the father gave me a beautiful home made ornament that he had finished making just the night before. When I left, I was so energized! The mom said to be sure to take a look at the sign next to her door. I did and had a good laugh as I took this photo.
I hope you will consider sharing some of the things you all do to help others. I think these things are meaningful to those we help, l know they are meaningful to those of us who do. This is the time when I begin to understand the statement, "It is better to give than to receive."
Merry Christmas to my Pricescope friends,
Wink
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