Volunteers prepare Thanksgiving meals
The event has become a tradition of service and gratitude for all involved.
Volunteers and staff at Heyman HospiceCare at Floyd gathered Wednesday to prepare Thanksgiving meals for families served by the organization. The event has become a tradition of service and gratitude for all involved.
“Every year, we hear back from families about what a blessing it is to them. It touches them deeply… just as it touches our staff and volunteers deeply,” said Shelly Shumate, Community and Physician Liaison for Heyman HospiceCare at Floyd.
Edward Brady, a hospice volunteer, has worked at the event since 2003. He was served by the organization during his wife’s terminal illness.
“This is just such a wonderful organization, and I had to do something to give back,” said Brady as he packed the foam boxes with food and transferred them to another
table where they would be packaged together and delivered.
The assembly-line process creates about 50 plates of food, including choices of turkey, ham, dressing, sweet potato soufflé and a variety of casseroles. Two rooms at hospice were filled with workers early Wednesday morning. The “cold room” provided desserts and other dishes.
“Our families receive two hot plates — a turkey and sides plate and a ham and sides plate, and a cold plate of sides and a dessert plate,” Shumate said.
While not an “official” Hospice volunteer, 15-year-old Nathan Towe was helping out, adorned with plastic gloves alongside his grandmother, Jerrie McDougle, a registered nurse who works for Heyman HospiceCare at Floyd.
“It’s such a blessing to be able to help the families this time of year,” McDougle said. “I just love doing it.”