Translate

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

The Last Gift


Photo by Ben Stechschulte
 Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and there are more reasons to be thankful than we can count.  We have good friends and loving family here and abroad.  We have the necessities to live and we have luxuries like internet and computers.  We have wonderful people we work with day in and day out.  And we have supporters like you who keep this Center going.


We have a doctor who when a special need arises will give through his family foundation…he has rebuilt the volunteer bus, hired a nurse for a year, and is helping the orthopedics program…and on top of all that, he volunteers.

Once Again Nut Butter supports our growers giving them fair prices, negotiates face-to-face, and has even given to the Center’s budget by donating part of their tahini proceeds.  Their-Bucks supports the coffee growers, also gives farmers fair prices, negotiates face-to-face, and when they were here last fixed the Center’s water pump which lowers our costs.
Students at Bucknell raise funds all year round to support the clinic.  They have fund raisers and sometimes they raise the equivalent of one year’s tuition at Bucknell and - believe you me - that is no little change!

We have donors who faithfully give monthly.   We have a few who tithe to the Center.  Some respond to each newsletter with comments and gifts.  We even had a donor, Georgia Quirk, who has supported this work for years.  She began generously donating quarterly, and in the first part of this year she sent us a check for her whole pledge for 2012 stating it was her last gift, because she found she had stage 4 cancer.

It was not her last gift.  Her last gift to us was her love and encouragement for us to keep up the good work.  She always wrote the sweetest notes to us that just warmed the cockles of my heart.  We just learned she died on September 12.  We will remember her with gratefulness.

On this Thanksgiving we thank you one and all!