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North Carolina transplants: Giving back to the community, churches, volunteers at hospitals, hospices, senior centers, non-musical contributions, Meals on Wheels, musical performances
Hello, everyone. Jan at the keyboard, Bill nearby.
We’ve been thinking about this post for a long time, can hardly wait for your enthusiastic and thoughtful replies. This question is directed to all NCtransplants wherever you have settled (or will settle) in the state, though the question will no doubt apply more to retirees, since (in theory, at least) they have more time to give. Here we go:
What are you doing—or will you do—to “give back” to your new community?
I’ll start: Background: We just retired from a home business that offered live music for weddings and other special events in the San Diego area. I played a top-of-the-line hammered dulcimer made by Jerry Read Smith, Song of the Wood, Black Mountain. I performed in trio, quartet, and quintet with strings, flute, and trumpet—all of them local professional orchestra musicians. It has been a job! We ran the entire business ourselves, hired 50 musicians a year, and performed music for 150 events a year. Stress?—yes!--but that job totally blessed our lives!
CHURCHES. Once we sell our house and move to Weaverville, we’ll be eager to bring our knowledge, experience, dedication, and love of music (classical to hoedown) to those in need of it on a volunteer basis. We have already volunteered—and were welcomed—at the large church we plan to join in Asheville, where there is plenty of budget but precious little of it for music. Five hundred people every Sunday hear nothing but organ, cantor (sings the liturgy), and occasional "special" instruments like flute, maybe. There we will perform for services, concerts, and weddings, and even help out as wedding coordinators (line up processionals, explain what to do, help keep people calm). In this way we will quickly get to know our congregation and have a great time spreading musical sunshine!
HOSPITALS, HOSPICES, CONVALESCENT HOMES, SENIOR CENTERS. The University of North Carolina-Asheville includes a College for Seniors, which runs a nationally renowned “Center for Creative Retirement.” Part of what they do is to get seniors together in “Special Interest Groups.” Through that valuable resource we hope to find other retired musicians who will join us in offering volunteer services throughout the area. Music is healing!
MACRO-COMMUNITY. We may even be able to offer well-paid work to some of Asheville’s professional (e.g., Symphony) musicians who want to supplement their incomes by performing for special events—in other words, we may do part-time in the Asheville area what we did full-time in the San Diego area, since we’re good at it, it’s heartwarming, it provides jobs!
MICRO-COMMUNITY. There may be musicians in the new community we’re buying into—120 upcoming homes in Pinebrook Farms, Weaverville—or even in Weaverville itself—who would like to “share the joy” at clubhouse and other local gatherings. Music is chicken soup for the soul!
NON-MUSICAL CONTRIBUTIONS. We may well find ourselves tutoring (I’m a former English teacher)... reading aloud to shut-ins (I’m a hopeless ham)... driving for Meals on Wheels, bringing flowers from our garden to go with the meals... who knows what else we will naturally fall into??
We'll still take care of ourselves and be truly "retired," since for us that means doing only what we want to do, when we want to do it. We'll hike, bike, dine out, garden, take in plays and concerts--of course. But self-entertainment won't be enough to give depth to our lives. We’re thankful to have been well taken care of by other people, especially employers, all of our lives. Now we're eager for the Last Great Adventure—GIVING BACK, THANKING GOD.
Since we all have different gifts and experience, we can't wait to hear about yours. Please share your vision!! Father John, I believe I heard you say something about Santa Claus???
Last edited by the Parkies; 06-21-2007 at 04:02 AM..
Hello, everyone. Jan at the keyboard, Bill nearby.
We’ve been thinking about this post for a long time, can hardly wait for your enthusiastic and thoughtful replies. This question is directed to all NCtransplants wherever you have settled (or will settle) in the state, though the question will no doubt apply more to retirees, since (in theory, at least) they have more time to give. Here we go:
What are you doing—or will you do—to “give back” to your new community?
I’ll start: Background: We just retired from a home business that offered live music for weddings and other special events in the San Diego area. I played a top-of-the-line hammered dulcimer made by Jerry Read Smith, Song of the Wood, Black Mountain. I performed in trio, quartet, and quintet with strings, flute, and trumpet—all of them local professional orchestra musicians. It has been a job! We ran the entire business ourselves, hired 50 musicians a year, and performed music for 150 events a year. Stress?—yes!--but that job totally blessed our lives!
CHURCHES. Once we sell our house and move to Weaverville, we’ll be eager to bring our knowledge, experience, dedication, and love of music (classical to hoedown) to those in need of it on a volunteer basis. We have already volunteered—and were welcomed—at the large church we plan to join in Asheville, where there is plenty of budget but precious little of it for music. Five hundred people every Sunday hear nothing but organ, cantor (sings the liturgy), and occasional "special" instruments like flute, maybe. There we will perform for services, concerts, and weddings, and even help out as wedding coordinators (line up processionals, explain what to do, help keep people calm). In this way we will quickly get to know our congregation and have a great time spreading musical sunshine!
HOSPITALS, HOSPICES, CONVALESCENT HOMES, SENIOR CENTERS. The University of North Carolina-Asheville includes a College for Seniors, which runs a nationally renowned “Center for Creative Retirement.” Part of what they do is to get seniors together in “Special Interest Groups.” Through that valuable resource we hope to find other retired musicians who will join us in offering volunteer services throughout the area. Music is healing!
MACRO-COMMUNITY. We may even be able to offer well-paid work to some of Asheville’s professional (e.g., Symphony) musicians who want to supplement their incomes by performing for special events—in other words, we may do part-time in the Asheville area what we did full-time in the San Diego area, since we’re good at it, it’s heartwarming, it provides jobs!
MICRO-COMMUNITY. There may be musicians in the new community we’re buying into—120 upcoming homes in Pinebrook Farms, Weaverville—or even in Weaverville itself—who would like to “share the joy” at clubhouse and other local gatherings. Music is chicken soup for the soul!
NON-MUSICAL CONTRIBUTIONS. We may well find ourselves tutoring (I’m a former English teacher)... reading aloud to shut-ins (I’m a hopeless ham)... driving for Meals on Wheels, bringing flowers from our garden to go with the meals... who knows what else we will naturally fall into??
We'll still take care of ourselves and be truly "retired," since for us that means doing only what we want to do, when we want to do it. We'll hike, bike, dine out, garden, take in plays and concerts--of course. But self-entertainment won't be enough to give depth to our lives. We’re thankful to have been well taken care of by other people, especially employers, all of our lives. Now we're eager for the Last Great Adventure—GIVING BACK, THANKING GOD.
Since we all have different gifts and experience, we can't wait to hear about yours. Please share your vision!! Father John, I believe I heard you say something about Santa Claus???
YES!!! This is the attitude I love! Folks like you are welcome here in NC anytime
YES!!! This is the attitude I love! Folks like you are welcome here in NC anytime
PLEASE, TO THE PERSON WHO GAVE ME NEGATIVE REP FOR THIS, CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHY????
How is this post in any way "prejudicial"? Your comment makes absolutely no sense. COME ON! I loved the thoughtful post by the Parkies and was complimenting them.
Maybe the person that gave the rep. didn't like the fact that these very nice people want to "give back"..........LoveMountains, I can't figure people out
when I find out I'll let you know........anyone who reads these boards knows
that you are one of the first to be helpful in anyway.........could be maybe someone's jealous. Anyway, keep on being #1 in my book.
Oh my. Thank you, lovesMountains, for your warm welcome! It made our hearts giggle.
The giggle died when we read that someone bruised your rep for writing what you did to us. That's sad. What was he/she thinking??? Our guess is that he/she wasn't! Posters can be drunk, drugged, deranged, sick, unhappy, misinformed, uneducated, or simply stupid. The good news is that you have SO many rep points that NO one poster is going to dent much of YOUR fender, lovesMountains!!!
Songbird42, thank you for pointing out that lovesMountains always has her heart in the right place.
Hey, folks, we were merely sharing our hopes and dreams with the thought that other retirees would share THEIR hopes and dreams--beyond sitting on the rocking chair porch, of course--which we are SO looking forward to, by the way!!--we just don't want to do that ALL day, EVERY day! So we shared with you our carefully thought out plan for active involvement with our new community. We thought it would be fun and inspirational for retirees to peek into one another's visions for their new lives in NC, especially those visions that make positive contributions to the people who were there long before we came and who made NC the awesome state it still is today.
Anyone want to share???
Jan & Bill
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Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
This question is directed to all NC transplants wherever you have settled (or will settle) in the state, though the question will no doubt apply more to retirees, since (in theory, at least) they have more time to give. Here we go:
and move to Weaverville, we’ll be eager to bring our knowledge, experience, dedication, and love of music (classical to hoedown) to those in need of it on a volunteer basis. We have already volunteered—and were welcomed—at the large church we plan to join in Asheville, where there is plenty of budget but precious little of it for music. Five hundred people every Sunday hear nothing but organ, cantor (sings the liturgy), and occasional "special" instruments like flute, maybe. There we will perform for services, concerts, and weddings, and even help out as wedding coordinators (line up processionals, explain what to do, help keep people calm). In this way we will quickly get to know our congregation and have a great time spreading musical sunshine!
LovesMountains
