Do-Gooders Serve Many, Get Back Much
JFK asked the often-quoted question, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” George H.W. Bush founded the Points of Light Foundation to promote the spread of volunteerism in service to others. Giving generously of their time and talents to more than 80 causes and organizations within the Harbour, New Bern and Craven County, Fairfield Harbour volunteers can often be seen at the hospital, the local soup kitchen, tutoring in grade schools, delivering Meals on Wheels, or teaching sailing to high school Jr. ROTC students. We walk, talk, plant, pick up litter, drive, and build ramps for handicapped neighbors. Volunteering can ease the transition between working and retirement; it changes lives and unites us all to a common cause.
What follows is a partial list of organizations that Harbour volunteers serve.
Relay for Life
Walk to End Alzheimer’s
MS Bikeathon
Radio Reading Service to the Blind
Docents for New Bern home & garden tours
Master Gardeners
Broad Creek Road Gang & Clean Sweep Day
Volunteer drivers take DAV to VA clinics
Tryon Palace tour guides, blacksmithing, gardening
Guardiam Ad Litem
Harbour Helpers
To quote one resident, “We are so proud of the organizations that we serve. . . . I believe that finding our place within our community has helped immensely to help us continue to feel needed and connected to this community. . . . Volunteering has been a huge part of my life since I was a child, and I intend to continue until the end of my life.”
We host homesick, new-recruit Marines for home cooked Thanksgiving dinners around our tables. Holding the hands of a hospice resident, serving communion to shut-ins, or singing to residents of a nursing home – Harbour volunteers are there. Whether knitted or sewn, the Fairfield Harbour Hospital Auxiliarists handcrafted gifts get a smile from thankful patients at CarolinaEast Medical Center. Patients received 200 handmade Christmas stockings stuffed with goodies on Christmas Eve to brighten their stay in the hospital over a holiday. Volunteer Tri-Community firefighters, the Coast Guard Auxiliary and the Community Emergency Response Team are prepared for land or water emergencies. And should those emergencies require blood transfusions, Fairfield Harbour volunteers have spearheaded ongoing blood drives every 6 weeks. “Service is the rent we pay for space on this earth.” Shirley Chisholm
