Day 366: A Tree For Marie

Patricia here, honored to post the final entry and offer family reflections at the finish.


Who knew that when we started this Service Challenge 365 in 2011 that it was a Leap Year and would end with Day 366 ?!!  So here we are, a full calendar year later, ending this challenge as planned, on what would be Marie’s 52nd birth day.  And as in the case of many journeys, the end can bring us back to the beginning.  We chose to reach back to when we first lost Marie to honor and celebrate her close and heartfelt connection with St. John the Baptist Church and School.  From almost the beginning of Marie’s life with Ron (and later with Meaghan) in Peabody, she was an active member of St. John the Baptist parish.  Marie taught second grade CCD, guiding countless young children through the sacrament of First Communion.  St. John’s church is where Marie’s treasured niece and nephew, Jennifer and Michael, received their sacraments and where her beloved in-laws, Maureen, Bob, Joyce and Mike shared in the Mass and spiritual events of the parish community.  And, not surprisingly, it was where we gathered for Marie's funeral.

                 

 It also came as no great surprise that Meaghan would eventually attend St. John’s School.  Rather, it came as a horrible surprise that Marie would not live long enough to see Meaghan complete kindergarten.  Over the school years that followed, Bianca, Olivia and eventually Sophia,  would join me in an annual visit to Meaghan’s classroom where we would conduct a mini-lesson/project that involved reading and crafting.  Meaghan’s teachers were always so welcoming, supportive and flexible to accommodate our Auntie/Cousin special visits to the school.  We will always treasure these memories that gave us a glimpse of the warm and loving environment that Meaghan was experiencing at St. John’s.

Upon Marie’s death in 2001, her dearest friend in Peabody, (other than her dear and devoted sister-in-law Joyce J) recognized Marie’s love for St. John’s and arranged for an extraordinarily generous gesture of legacy in her honor.  Mary Gauthier, (pictured above with Marie) and her husband Brad, donated a Kousa Dogwood tree that was planted on the grounds of St. John the Baptist School.  A lovely placque dedicates the tree to our Marie F. Bettano.   And perhaps Joyce Kilmer sums up the rest at its best in his Trees poem…….."A tree that looks at God all day, and lifts her leafy arms to pray."  Marie’s tree, like her family and friends, have grown in so many ways…..standing strong, reaching up, branching out, gracefully weathering storms, and most importantly, maintaining deep roots. 

Today, 10 years later, we revisit the growth of that special dogwood tree and treaured friendship with Mary, Brad, Colleen, Kelly and Jimmy Gauthier as we make a little donation in Marie’s memory to St. John the Baptist School in Peabody.  We can’t think of a more fitting entry to conclude our service challenge.  Happy Birthday Marie!! 

              REFLECTIONS

As the powerful lyrics from one of our favorite songs, Seasons of Love, (of the musical  Rent) so aptly share:

Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Moments so dear.
Five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure, measure a year?

In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights
In cups of coffee
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.

In five hundred twenty-five thousand
Six hundred minutes
How do you measure
A year in the life?

March 26, 2011 – March 25, 2012 will be the year our team measured life in Service. 

Intended to be a way we all gave to remember, honor and celebrate Marie, the journey became as much about receiving, as giving. It became the year when we were especially humbled, learning that there was a deserving cause in every direction we turned. Some familiar with repeat opportunities to contribute; others new or unnoticed until we “turned up the Giving Radar.”  It was the year the family stayed in touch through a personal journal that shared our outreach experiences.  It was the year that through each others’ guidance, suggestions, actions and love, we managed to stay on schedule and attain our goal. (A little gratitude shout out here to our Rinck-Cutler-Bettano-Capshaw family guest bloggers!)  And now, it is a project that closes with a bittersweet sense of accomplishment.  This blog ends; a life time of giving continues.  We are proud to be Marie’s family and we all feel it is safe to assume that Marie would be proud of us!

Day 365!!!: Collington Square Club

Olivia here. Wow!! Day 365. I can't believe this project is finally almost over! It has been a great year of selflessness, generosity, as well as fun and exciting adventures!

For my last blog entry, I spent the morning with the Community Service Council. The CSC is an organization on campus affiliated with the Center for Community Service and Justice that has one-time service projects throughout the year. I am one of the most committed members in the club as the student coordinator tells me (he went to New Orleans with me) so I really must like the events the club runs!  Today, the group went to Collington Square. It is a building made of three row houses (sort of like the houses in NOLA) and is used for a teen youth after school program for kids in Baltimore. Since it is a Saturday, the high school kids were there for SAT prep. We decided to bring them a healthy lunch, so we made turkey and ham sandwiches, and brought tomatoes, cheese, and condiments for them to use. We also brought along sliced apples, chips, drinks, and doughnuts for dessert.

We were told about 18 kids were going to be there, but with the rainy weather and such, only 5 kids were there. Although it was a smaller crowd that we expected, we got to talk with the kids and learn why they participated in the Collington Square Club. One was struggling in English, the other Math, and others wanted to learn how to take tests better. The program is also designed for teens to not go down the "wrong path", living in the rough area of East Baltimore.

We learned that the Club hosts a summer program, where the older high schoolers make lesson plans and teach the younger members subjects such as Science, Math, Reading, and Writing. The kids we met today were enthusiastic about the program and were excited about this summer's activities. Most of them were pretty shy when we arrived, but they quickly opened up to us and even gave us a tour of the building before we left.

I hope Loyola starts a weekly trip to Collington Square. Apparently we had a program there for about 5 years, and stopped going for an unknown reason.

I was unable to take pictures due to confidentiality reasons with the teens there, but here is a (rotated, I can't fix it...) picture of the food we brought!

It has been such a great year. It has got me much more involved in service on campus, and I'm glad I will continue to be involved.

I'm sad I won't be posting my night at Relay for Life this year as it is next weekend, but I will be thinking of a year ago when we started this wonderful service blog with the event.

Auntie Ree, I love you and so glad we could do this project in your honor <3

Day 364: Supporting Hopeline from Verizon

Paul here. Now that we are almost at the end of our Challenge, you would think we have covered just about every cause there is to support.  Well, the sad truth is that there are so many worthy causes that need help, we have discovered that one can never run out of places to turn to offer service or support.  Today, we learned about Verizon's Hopeline program, a campaign which seeks the donation of old phones (of course we have those with everyone constantly upgrading!) to be placed in a collection bin in their stores, that will be recycled to support overcoming domestic violence.  Hopeline strives to both raise awareness of domestic violence and prevent this horrific problem by giving these old phones to at-risk families who might just be a phone call away form safety. It's easy to dislike a large corporation like Verizon, especially when trying to navigate through endless phone prompts to try to reach a human who might actually care about your problem.  However, I give them a lot of credit for trying to address the tragic problems of domestic violence.


HopeLine Statistics as seen on the Verizon website:
Since HopeLine from Verizon’s national cell phone recycling and re-use program was launched
in 2001, Verizon Wireless has:
 Collected more than 8 million phones.
 Awarded more than $10 million in cash grants to domestic violence agencies and
organizations throughout the country.
 Distributed more than 106,000 phones with more than 319 million minutes of free
wireless service to be used by victims of domestic violence.

We are blessed to have been raised in loving, nurturing homes, and it's safe to say that the most violent act in our family is the trapping of a mouse!  Unfortunately many people live in daily fear of physical and emotional abuse.  The road out of this environment is not always clear or easy, but the more education provided by Hopeline and others can give these victims a chance to take control of their lives.  Keeping in mind how lucky we are, and how Verizon is helping these victims, it makes waiting on hold for an agent a bit easier to tolerate.

As my last entry, I want to say how proud I am of all us who made this Service Challenge possible.  It made us think creatively of how we can provide service to those less fortunate.   While many people may have benefited from our efforts, I believe it also helped make us better individuals as well.  If it's true that "the more you give the more you get", then we received a tremendous amount from this Challenge.
I think Marie would be proud of us too.

Day 363: NICU hats and Donation to a Rwanda Trip

Hey everyone,

I cannot believe it is my last blog today! It is so remarkable how we have been able to complete a year-long service blog...it really seems like just yesterday when we started.

As my last contribution, I did 2 acts of service today, neither of which were involved with Relay for Life, for a change! I first brought Nana's homemade premie-hats to the donation center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) where I also work. It is so crazy to think that Olivia and I used to fit into them! Pictures are embedded of these adorable little hats on Olivia as a baby (left pic and bottom pic.)The hat on me in the picture below with Daddy is not with a hat made by Nana as I had finally "graduated" out of the smaller size, knit hats.  Look how tiny our hands were at a almost two months old!!

As my second "bloggable" event today, I donated to my friend Liz's fundraising efforts for her Rwanda trip. At the end of the school year she is going to Rwanda for 10 days to help the village youth in the town of Agazho-Shalom village. Liz was one of my very first friends at Penn, and she is also a nursing student with me. She has been a very generous friend over the years and I am happy to support her cause. Check out the website below!

http://PennABQRwanda.causevox.com/

Day 362: My Weekly Volunteer Visit to Hospice

Patricia here.  It hardly seems like a week has passed since visiting My Friend at the nursing home hospice center, but indeed it is Wednesday again, so off I went to see her, hoping that she would be alert and responsive.  I found her sitting in the rec room, eyes closed, but aware that I was visiting.  (Apparently she had just had her medications, and they make her quite sleepy.)  I was glad to see that she still has the sunflower ribbon I gave her tied around the arm of her wheelchair!  Today I brought her a St. Patrick's Day ribbon tied around a silk rose.  Although she never was able to open her eyes, she did lean in as if to smell the rose when I said that I brought her a flower. We visited for only about a half hour as she really needed to go lie down and sleep, but during that time she held my hand tightly and heard all about the corn beef and Guiness bread that Sophia made for Paul's birthday dinner; the daffodils starting to bloom in our yard;  Marcia's dress for Laura's wedding; and on and on.  Eventually I decided to read excerpts to her from my book "Chicken Soup for the Mother/Daughter Soul" as I've been told that hospice patients often like to be read to...which is probably much nicer than hearing me ramble on!  Overall, it really was a lovely visit.  I met her nurse who told me that My Friend once drove in the Pacer Car at NASCAR!!  Simply amazing to learn little tidbits of the vibrant person she once was.  If only she could share her stories with me....

Day 361: Easter Baskets for Kids

At Saint Luke's Church, the parishioners were invited to participate in the Easter Project--fill an Easter Basket, attach a name tag of a girl or boy and age. One requirement was to have an age-appropriate book in the basket. The baskets will be given to 150 children formerly at Sandra's Lodge and now living in Dorchester, Roxbury, and Waltham. These homeless children live with their mothers in shelters, motels, and subsidized apartments. I decided to participate in this project and make a basket to give in memory of my dear friend, Ruth, whose birthday is tomorrow. She and I loved doing the Giving Tree at Christmas and the Baby Shower around Mother's Day at our church, so I'm sure, had she known about this project, she would have participated with her love.

Day 360: Relay for Life-Let's Wrap it Up!

Hey everyone, Bianca here. Well, it's finally about time for Relay (FINALLY!!!). With just 12 days left, we have already committed 589 participants, 98 teams, and have raised $26,600. This entire week, MArch 19-23rd, is our annual Paint the Campus Purple Week, which is a huge Relay awareness and fundraising week before the actual event. It is great to see this week finally coming into place, because it has been so stressful to plan! I have been coordinating with individual team captains to host fundraisers during the week. The idea is that we would have at least one team hosting a fundraiser, or at least participating in a Relay-awareness activity, each day of the week. Hopefully this will encourage more people to donate and register, as we are still pretty far behind our $125,000 goal. I have attached a picture of the schedule of events for this week.

In preparation of this week, we wrapped the entire campus in purple. Streamers, balloons, posters, banners, etc in order to spread awareness. We also put little flags all over college green, so those who want to sit on the grass to do homework have no choice but to acknowledge them! Unfortunately, the chalk had wiped off Locust Walk pretty fast, but most of our decoration stayed. My camera's memory card is for some reason not registering in my computer, but you can imagine a campus painted purple!

This week I am also contacting all of the team captains to coordinate fundraisers for the day of the event as well as contacting performing arts groups to provide entertainment. We already have a lot of responses, which will hopefully attract a lot more students!

Not only is Relay important to me because it is a night when I honor those loved ones who I have lost to cancer (Marie, Papa, Great Aunt Charlotte and Aunt Dianne from Portland, and many others), but there is another recent influence in my life who I would like to celebrate at this event. Upon coming to UPenn Nursing, I was awarded the Melissa Sengbusch Inspirational Scholarship. Melissa Marie Sengbusch was a young woman who was diagnosed with cancer just before her enrollment in the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania. Sadly, after a courageous battle, she died from her cancer when she was nineteen years old. Her parents, the scholarship sponsors, wanted to honor Melissa's legacy at UPenn and have founded a scholarship in her name. Each year, they award a member of the incoming freshman class with this scholarship.

After hearing Melissa's story of dedication and courage, and after meeting her parents (who I truly consider members of my family even after only meeting them three times), I am going to honor Melissa at this year's Relay for Life. I will be posting her picture, along with pictures of Auntie Marie and Papa, in the slide show when we are honoring those that we have lost. If possible, I will also be speaking on behalf of Melissa and her parents to share her inspiring story with the Penn community. Although I cannot possibly begin to explain every remarkable experience of Melissa's journey, I have posted a link below that explains her scholarship and provides insight into her incredible story.

After putting in so much time and hard work over the past eight months, I am really looking forward for Relay to finally happen and see the campus come together to support the disease that affects so many, as well as taking a moment to celebrate Marie, Papa, Great Aunts Charlotte and Dianne, and Upenn's Melissa, who will always be in my heart.

http://www.melissaslivinglegacy.org/about/story.html