Saturday afternoon, I joined the Relay for Life teams at Chase Memorial Nursing home for a fundraiser aimed at buying residents’ gifts and donating money to cancer research.
The Holiday Bazaar at the Chase Community Center hosted a number of area craft vendors and sold lunches with half the money going to American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life and the rest spent on gifts for the home’s residents.
Chase’s Assistant Supervisor of Nursing and bazaar volunteer Maryanne Campbell said that while there are many families who come to Chase during the holidays, some residents have few visitors or living relatives. It’s those individuals the event hoped to help, she explained, by purchasing gifts that would later be presented by the nursing home’s staff.
Campbell said she helped start the bazaar last year “so we could make more money for the Chase residents and the Relay.”
Chase has more than 50 employees participating in the Relay for Life, which is enough to support two teams – Caring Hearts and Healing Hands.
The bazaar and bake sale was from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m., and I arrived at just after 11.
I was told the lunch hour was the busiest time of the day and an extra pair of hands wouldn’t go unappreciated. Adopting the true spirit of this year’s “Delivering Christmas,” I had made a silent promise to myself to be as active and helpful as possible.
When I arrived, the room was filled with the delicious smell of brewing coffee and soup. A few people walked along the vendor’s displays while others sat at tables in the middle of the room, enjoying lunch.
After brief introduction, I immediately threw on my Santa hat and apron and went to the kitchen as diners kept filing in for the approaching lunch hour.
I’ve become a familiar face at Chase and around New Berlin through my weekly efforts with the New Berlin Gazette, the area’s Friday weekly.
I’m happy to say I couldn’t make the distance between coat rack and kitchen without bumping into a number of local acquaintances. Our very involved New Berlin correspondent Bonnie Jean Bauer had brought her daughter and a few friends to the luncheon. One of them was another close acquaintance, retired Town of New Berlin board member Halys Davis.
I’ve been volunteering long enough at community events to understand one of the most important aspects of the experience is engaging people.
However, another important part of these events is actually doing the work, so after a brief discussion about local crime, politics and natural gas, I joined volunteers, Chase Nurse Helen Ritchey and her daughter Jordan.
The two women bustled about the small kitchen taking deli-like orders from each customer. There were three different kinds of sandwiches, four soups, popcorn, cookies, lemonade, coffee and tea to choose from. I pulled on the plastic gloves, asked a customer what they’d like and then asked Ritchey where everything was.
After a few crash-course minutes, I had enough of a handle on things that I could prepare whole orders without too many questions. Altogether I must have made a few dozen sandwiches and poured twice as many cups of soup. Everything being offered was homemade by Chase’s Relay team members and for the cost of a few bucks, you couldn’t beat the price.
Sue Holbert, Chase’s director of nursing and fellow kitchen volunteer, said the event tended to raise a few hundred dollars, with many of the customers being from the nearby community or Chase staff.
“It’s good, affordable food, with the money going to good causes,” she said.