April 2008
Bill and Mary’s Volunteer Update from Cleveland
Greetings!
We sure do enjoy hearing from you—your support was especially nice around the time when Cleveland (and us!) received 20 inches of snow on March 8. It was a very stormy few days that brought back to us some memories of big snows from our childhoods in CT and NJ. This time we didn’t make any snowmen or igloos but Bill got to do some serious snow shoveling and Mary worked on a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle. After the storm our neighborhood in Cleveland was one lovely ‘winter wonderland’ with bright sun, blue skies, and also very quiet.
After being at this volunteer assignment in Cleveland now since Feb 4, we may be about as ‘adjusted’ as we are going to be. At national volunteer retreats we often discuss helpful attributes for long term volunteers. Always mentioned is ‘flexibility’. This particular assignment stretches us the most of any we’ve had so far. The unusual combination of different living arrangements, the train commute, the dreary weather, the only volunteers, as well as a unique office set up and job tasks offer about all the challenges we think we can handle. Not only do we live together (hosted in a pleasant home by a local non-volunteer couple, Jane and Wayne) but we also work together in the same office. This 24/7 arrangement has its ups and downs so we are working on making a few adjustments. Our volunteer commitment in Cleveland is for 9 months (Feb – Nov).
Our volunteer work at the United Church of Christ (UCC) National Setting can be as intense (or not!) as we want to make it. Our colleagues are interesting people; some with much experience and some not. We feel at ease with the staff and recently participated in painting a “Tent of Hope” for Darfur-Sudan awareness. Our projects revolve around computer database work, friend-raising emails and phone calls, numerous staff interviews and writing a best practices computer manual. Some job satisfaction is in the form of email and phone feedback from former missionaries and retired/current conference level staff. There is no lack of things that could be done or need attention. We stay very busy and often say at 4:30 pm “where did this day go?”
Unusual for us has been our tendency to ‘pick up’ germs and viruses since we arrived in Cleveland. For over a month either one or the other of us has been sick. Mary started with a cold (that was probably a virus) and then got a very bad case of ‘pink eye’. Urgent Care gave her eye medicine but then she had a virus cough for another week. Then Bill came down with the virus cough for 2 weeks. It is quite possible that our natural immunities were not strong enough for riding the commuter trains and our close quarters cause the ‘passing of the germs’. We’ve become even more serious hand-washers.
With so many other things to adapt to, we are glad to have found a church nearby that reminds us very much of our home church in Elon. Since our volunteering began in 2003, we’ve sometimes had short term affiliations with churches quite different than ECC. This time we’ve intentionally decided to participate at West Park United Church of Christ because we especially like the comfortable familiarity. On April 20 we are becoming associate members at West Park as we prefer not to be a ‘visitor’ every week.
We continue to pursue our hobby of exploring each area where we volunteer and liked very much both The Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Western Reserve Museum. On March 15th we went to Hinckley OH where the turkey buzzards return each year amid much local ado. We are just as glad not to see a single buzzard–their attractiveness remains illusive to us.
Thanks to the efforts of some of our office colleagues we’ve recently experienced dining at a new Vietnamese restaurant, attended an outstanding public theater performance, and presented a simple Heifer International program to a youth group experiencing a weekend ‘famine’ project.
Other social engagements include being treated to lunch at the nostalgic Chagrin Valley Hunt Club by new friends who happen to be parents of current Elon senior basketball player, Katie Whidden. We welcomed our first visitor to Cleveland, Willie Verhoff, a soon to graduate seminary student, whom we first met in Albuquerque. And we also spent a delightful evening with a family wanting to enlist our assistance this summer in housesitting for six weeks to tend 3 cats and care for their lawn and flower beds.
Cleveland is blessed to have an ‘Emerald Necklace’ of public parks and recreation areas. We are near the Rocky River Reservation and sometimes on weekends go there to ‘be outside’ and take walks on their very well maintained paths. We look forward to Spring as we feel the confinement of always being indoors and looking at daily gray skies reminds us of why we moved from CT to NC in 1990. It is not difficult to feel the pain of the people in the Cleveland area who struggle with economic depression and population decline.
Our long Easter weekend was quite special this year. Thanks to Mary’s brother Cal, and his wife Joan, we enjoyed an Easter Sunday Coolidge family reunion. They hosted 22 of us at their Lake Frederick VA home for Easter dinner and a customized family trivia jeopardy game. This was the first time since 2004 that we gathered and quite a gathering it was of 3 generations! We drove from OH to VA for the 3 day weekend. Mary’s sister came from Williamsburg VA. Her other brother from Tampa FL was visiting in the DC area so also came out. Then 6 of the 9 ‘cousins’ (including our son) and their families came from NC, DC, VA, Vancouver, and Kenya. And 4 of the 7 ‘grandchildren’ (including our granddaughter, Ashley) were there for our own special Easter egg hunt and games.
Our son, David, continues employment at In the Game Athletics in Matthews NC. The business was recently sold but David has the most longevity. He is also coaching a golf team for a small Charlotte private Christian School. Christy was recently promoted at Coca Cola Bottling in their financial services area. She is a valued employee and we know why! Christy’s Grandma Chappell (93) passed away peacefully on March 1 (also David and Christy’s 11th wedding anniversary). Ashley’s (4) leg is amazing. She really gets around now and without any assistance. They still fly to Baltimore for check ups about every other month. Everyone is glad the leg-lengthening ordeal is over. Her pre school progress at Easter Seals day care is very good. It was especially nice for us to spend time with Ashley (4) when they drove up for the Easter reunion; we miss seeing her while we are in Ohio! We colored eggs together, took her to Cal’s indoor club pool and she carefully held the leash when walking Cal’s big dog.
Our daughter, Cindi, and family are pretty well settled in Grandview, TX. We last saw them in December and are now figuring out how and when we will see them in 2008. Sawyer(12) is finishing up 6th grade and will start a weight and exercise program this summer to get ready for football. Brynne (8) is competing in jump roping and has been practicing 4 times a week as her regional competition is coming up this month. Luke is doing great in Kindergarten and loves his teacher. Sawyer and Luke ride motocross almost every day on the track that Mike built on their property. Luke is now riding in the 50 class and doing quite well while Sawyer continues to ride in the 80 class. Mike has a lengthy commute to Fort Worth but avoids traffic by opting to go in early; his company (DFW Camper Corral) is soon to build a new facility in Arlington. Cindi writes a column for the local newspaper and volunteers for PTO and church and more. Her Mitchell College roommate, Rene, is being married in June. The wedding is to be at Mike and Cindi’s ranch/residence.
When we accepted the Cleveland assignment – so far away from our family and preferred NC climate– we especially asked that we have planned opportunities every few months to travel and take vacation. So, April 4th we went to Gatlinburg TN (500 miles) for several days to have a much-needed break, see lots of ‘red bud’ in blossom, and practically watch the leaves come out! We had a good time with Mary’s RHAM High School classmate, Gaile, and her husband. Also took in a Dixie Stampede dinner/show with Heifer Ranch volunteer friends, Olive and Joan. Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Clingman’s Dome, highest point in TN, are interesting places to visit; we took along picnic lunches and amazed ourselves to be grateful to be swatting ‘black flies’ because they signified spring weather! We are open to other travel suggestions; we hope to hear from you some ideas of what and where to visit during this Cleveland assignment.
On April 9 we went from TN to NC to our town home to exchange out some clothes, bring back a few unneeded items in OH, pick up golf clubs, take care of eyeglasses and hearing device appointments, have lunch with our minister, Dan, and socialize with our neighbors, Betty and Dean, who keep their watchful eyes on our home. Not having been in NC in April since 2002, we are delighted to be around blue skies, warm temps and spring flowers and trees trying very hard to be beautiful even though the recent drought has made its mark.
This trip is also a perfect opportunity for us to concentrate on being reflective about our current assignment and to come up with ways to improve the experience. You are probably wondering why we are even doing this. We are sure that it is because long term volunteering really does suit us at this time in our lives and we truly believe this is where God wants us and how He wants us to be good stewards of our time and talents. Living and working in various situations around the USA helps us relate to, better understand, and have compassion for those whose entire lives are less than ideal. We are reminded that our blessings are many and, with good health and adequate energy, we hope to continue volunteering several more years. We are already recruited for 2009 in yet another, familiar (to us) state—more on that in a future update.
We are looking forward to being in Charlotte this weekend (Apr 12/13) to be with David and Christy and Ashley. Bill and David will enjoy watching The Masters and maybe get some golf in themselves. Early Monday morning 14th we right drive up Interstate 77 from Charlotte to Cleveland. Tuesday we return to the office and, that evening, Bill will accompany a season ticket holder, Dante (husband of our office colleague Pat) to see the Boston Red Sox play the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field.
Take care and write soon!
Mary and Bill
