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Annual Meeting provides opportunities for hands-on outreach

Each summer, the Good Samaritan Society’s Annual Meeting offers staff members from Society locations across the nation to come together to share best practices, hear about new initiatives and celebrate a shared commitment to the Society’s mission and ministry.

In 2009, the Society added a social accountability project to its Annual Meeting agenda as another way to live out the Society’s mission to help those in need. Annual Meeting attendees assembled and packed more than 123,000 meals through a partnership with Feed My Starving Children, a Christian nonprofit organization that distributes food to severely malnourished children in more than 60 countries.

Before the meals were packed, the Society’s 240 locations and its National Campus hosted fundraisers for several months to purchase the meals. The meals staff members purchased and packed were enough to feed 338 children every day for a year.

For the 2010 Annual Meeting this June, the Society is planning another hands-on outreach project with a packing event of 2,500 baby layettes and 5,000 personal health kits for children and adults in Zimbabwe, Africa. Annual Meeting attendees — as well as friends, families and residents from local Society centers — will have the opportunity to volunteer during Annual Meeting to assemble the care packages that will be sent to Karanda Mission Hospital, the Society’s newest Project Outreach mission partner.

As with last year’s outreach project, even those who are not able to attend Annual Meeting can help with the efforts. The Society is inviting anyone from its locations to make and send a quilt to be shipped to Zimbabwe with the care packages. Organizers say they also are accepting donations for new and gently used crayons to be included in comfort bags for children.

The Society has partnered with the Orphan Grain Train to ship the supplies to Karanda Mission Hospital. The Society is asking staff members, residents, family members and friends for donations to go toward the cost of purchasing the items for the care packages, as well as the cost of shipping the items.

Receiving a simple hand-packed care package from the Good Samaritan Society will help create an environment in Zimbabwe where people feel loved, valued and at peace.

Volunteers help provide new outdoor living area

Residents at Good Samaritan Society – Spokane Valley in Spokane, Wash., have a new outdoor living area and a refurbished dining room thanks to a service project that involved dozens of local contractors and an army of volunteers.

For five days in May, professional crews, volunteers and center staff members worked day and night to spruce up the courtyard for Spokane Valley residents. Other workers moved inside to redo the dining room. In all, about 60 contractors donated an estimated $200,000 in labor and materials for the renovation.

“It’s a wonderful transformation,” says Administrator Stephen Collette. “We appreciate the work and support. With economic times as difficult as they’ve been, it’s nice to see how the community has rallied around this campus and this particular project.”

The idea for adding an outdoor living space came from discussions with local landscaper Clyde Haase, whose mother and mother-in-law live at Good Samaritan Society – Spokane Valley. The host of the local Fox 28 House to Home Community Show, a do-it-yourself program, Haase usually does residential work. But this time, he wanted to try a community service project and started talking to the center about his plan.

In mid-May, his idea began to take shape when equipment, loads of brick, piles of sod and other supplies began to arrive at the center. As an 80-foot crane lifted supplies over the building and into the enclosed courtyard, many residents and staff members lined up to watch. “It was quite a sight to see,” says Collette.

To keep the project moving, crews worked day and night. They installed brick pavers and put down sod. They planted flowers and dug in shrubs. They added new lighting, a water fountain, barbeque grill, a large pergola and a two-tiered serving table for use by residents in wheelchairs. When two spruce trees needed to be cut down, workers created two eagle sculptures from their trunks. In the dining room, crews replaced old cabinets and counters. They stripped off wallpaper, painted and added new window treatments, ceiling tiles, a china hutch and electric fireplace. To finish the room, a local artist created a photo display wall for residents.

Haase also featured various stages of the renovation on his House to Home show, giving the center additional publicity. “We’ve received a lot of good calls from those shows,” says Collette. In the coming weeks, Collette also expects the interior designer who helped with the dining room will feature the work on her show which airs in both the Spokane and the Seattle areas.

Collette says the new courtyard offers an attractive place for residents to sit, visit and entertain their families. But, he says, what many residents and staff members appreciate most about the project is its name. The courtyard has been named the Maidhoff and Mallert Memorial Garden in memory of two staff members who died last year. Dorothy Maidhoff had worked for the center for 32 years as the dietary director and Carol Mallert had worked for the center for 13 years as a restorative nurse coordinator.

“We all miss Dorothy and Carol,” says Collette. “Our courtyard is a beautiful reminder of their passion, dedication and commitment.”

For more information, visit: http://www.housetohometv.com/?/home/community