Saying Goodbye to the VCofWC

I heard some disturbing news yesterday when I called the Volunteer Center of Washington County and was told, “it is now just a 3-ring white binder” on the desk of the receptionist at the Five County Association of Governments.  She told me “whenever someone calls in wanting to volunteer, I just take their name and forward the information to one of the agencies in town.”  Thankfully, it appears, the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, the Foster Grandparent and Senior Companion Programs are still around as evidenced by an ad through the DWS looking for program coordinators.

It breaks my heart, because WE – including as many as 19 full and part time employees along with some fantastic AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps*VISTA members – built an amazing organization.  When I first came on board my budget was $30,000 … when I left for the mission field in 2010, our budget was nearly $600,000.  We went from a teensy, tiny RSVP program to 6 programs (RSVP, FGP, SCP, Youth Volunteer Corps, a Medicare counseling program called Health Insurance Information Program and our Court-ordered Community Service Program).  I had more than 50 AmeriCorps and AmeriCorps*VISTA members over the years – many I still hear from occasionally on FB or Linked In.  We had over 2000 volunteers of all ages - whose names and faces we knew - and, who considered themselves “RSVP or YVC volunteers serving at the hospital, library or a school.”  We provided volunteers for almost every community event in Southern Utah – except the St. George Art Festival –and were well respected in all three communities - St. George, Cedar City and Kanab - where we had offices. 

I fought for Carol to be my replacement because I saw a woman with the kind of drive our organization needed, even though she didn’t appear, at least on paper, to have the right skill set for the job.  No question the community needs her new program, but why did she need to take down the Volunteer Center in the process?

Ed gave me some good advice when he told me to “let it go” and I will, but I needed to vent and to assure myself what we built over a period of 16 years was what I thought it was … a dynamic organization which met many, many community needs.  We had an amazing staff and hardworking volunteers – many who told me how much they loved working with me and how our organization made them feel vital and important in meeting the needs of the Southern Utah community.  I'll let it go but it probably isn’t going to be today!

To Denver and Beyond ... and Even More Beyond!

We made a quick trip to Denver (if you can call 11-hours one way a “quick” trip) on the weekend of September 10-14.  This dual-purpose time in Colorado was (1) to see David, Jan’L, Kaler, Kole and Kyle … and in this instance, to also meet up with their cousin Matthew who was in Denver interviewing with medical schools in the area; and, (2) so I could attend the Rotary Institute at the Westminster Westin Hotel where I was dropped off at 9-ish and picked up at 5 p.m. on each of 3 days.    During our time with Dave and Jan'L, we shucked corn to fill the freezer; attended Kyle's scout pack meeting and witnessed him receiving his Bear badge; and, we had lunch at a Denver "speak-easy" then took a jaunt out to Fort Collins to see the beginnings of Colorado's second temple.  It was a relaxing, fun time with the Denver Sappington’s … and I learned a lot at the Rotary Institute, too. 

On Sunday morning, we drove to Provo – a shorter road trip of only 9 hours – where we stayed overnight at the home of Jan and Bruce Christensen, then met up with Kelly, Gary and Whitney for a delightful evening at the Simmons Pioneer Theater Company on the campus of the University of Utah for a performance of “The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”  This entertaining play – with two different versions – took an inside look into the lives of the contestants in a spelling bee.  We saw the “family” version deemed “safe” for kids or those of us who might be uncomfortable with the “adult” version. 

On Tuesday morning, we drove 4 hours to St. George to bake cookies for the Bloomington Stake Picnic and to catch up on things at home before leaving on Thursday morning to drive 6 more hours to Corona.  Again, with a dual purpose (1) to celebrate my mother’s 91^st birthday on September 20 and (2) to help her get settled at Emeritus at Corona, a memory care facility across from Crown Pointe.  The dementia is escalating … in fact, she did not recognize the photo of my Dad as her husband, noting her husband was Joe!  She is fiercely unhappy and emotionally combative – hates me  (and told me she always has) and everyone at this new place although she’s not yet met most of them.  The Emeritus at Corona kitchen staff created a birthday cake and had balloons for her on Saturday.  Janene Bills and Mother’s square dancing friends Jim and Diane Long came by with happy wishes, but she denied it was her birthday and was angry she had been dragged out of bed and forced to get dressed.  It really is very sad to see her in this situation, because her youth, beauty, husband and many of her friends are gone, whatever she has left of her life is being spent in bed, and “I hate it here!”  I can’t help but wonder why “they shoot horses and put down injured animals” but we keep our people alive “no matter what.” In the heat of the move, when she was particularly unhappy with me because I had to take the cat in for shots and for grooming, Ed reminded me of the final words my father ever spoke to me on earth ... "thanks for trying so hard to get along with her!"

As we were coming through the Virgin River Gorge, we were greeted by a beautiful rainbow – a sign, Ed said, we are back where we belong!  When we finally arrived home on Saturday night, we took a minute to calculate our travel and determined we had been in the car for 36 hours and traveled 2300+ miles in ten days!  So the next time my companion complains, “we never go anywhere,” I will refer him to this blog post.