Let service snow

To the editor:

This week, I have had opportunities to give me cause to get out of my comfort zone of retirement and challenge me to think about how I might be a part of service projects.

The first opportunity came through a visit to Sunshine Children’s Home in Andover with Heartland Retired Educators. Up to 14 children awaiting court intervention to determine what next steps for them would be receive everything they need from blankets or quilts to call their own, hygiene products, and clothing, to toys, books, and food. I learned I can help a similar facility in El Dorado though my thoughts and prayers, the many things they use, and monetary support.

Saturday, I first heard teacher Ginger Becker speak at my Delta Kappa Gamma meeting. Ginger told the story of her journey to become an educator. Once an elementary school teacher, she is now at Tabor College, where she junior and senior education majors. She uses the same methods to teach college students as she used in her elementary classrooms, along with teaching respect, dignity, and compassion. These students will have a much clearer picture of their responsibility for each of their charges when they enter their first classroom. Kudos to Tabor for encouraging staff to think outside the box as to their method of instructing students.

I then went to a Veteran’s Day program at Peabody American Legion. Navy veteran Ty Fredrickson gave a talk about the Snow Globe Effect. Ty compared a person to a snow globe in a way to make each of us examine our lives. Ty told the audience how a snow globe may sit on a shelf for a long period of time before someone picks it up and shakes it to make it appear as if it is snowing on the scene inside the globe. Without the shaking, the snow globe seems to have very little purpose.

This described his life after getting out of the service, getting “shaken up” into finding many ways he could use his talents and resources in a tiny village in Bangladesh to see that children are educated and given medical help.

He challenged each of us to remain open to opportunities to be “shaken up” and do what each of us can to help in our community, our county, or country to use our talents to “let it snow” with beauty to serve others.

Mary Olson
Peabody