The St. Stephen Presbyterian Church Mission Committee needs your help at the new, state-of-art, VA outpatient health center serving vets from Tarrant and 15 surrounding counties down the road from church, at 2201 SE Loop 820 (near the intersection of I-35, by the Tarrant County College campus). Provide coffee, breakfast pastries and cookies, a kind face and a good word, to vets in the waiting area at the Center weekly, on Tuesday, Thursday or Friday afternoons. You bring the baked goods and your charming self, and the VA provides the coffee. We need volunteers to provide baked goods, and 2-3 folks to serve coffee and hospitality for morning and afternoon shifts. The VA and vets they serve need us “yesterday”!
Volunteers are also requested for upcoming national veterans’ salute on February 10-14, bake sale March 10 and Independence Day cookout on July 8.
Contact Charlotte Ray by phone 817-946-7798 or email charray@att.net or Richard Parr 214-695-8443 r_parr@sbcglobal.net.
Comments from SSPC members who have volunteered at the VA Health Center:
Comments from Charlotte Ray:
Since Richard Parr and I really wanted to know what we are getting ourselves and other volunteers into at the Veterans Administration Clinics, we went Friday the 10th to check it out. We were greeted by a lovely young woman, Celeste, head of the Volunteer Services there. She showed us where the kitchen was and where all the supplies were stored. We made lemonade, gathered up our cookies and took off to meet some Vets. The clinics electricity was off that day, so there weren’t many veterans waiting for appointments. They couldn’t even access their records, but we were able to meet and greet quite a few folks who took us up on our lemonade, cookies and conversation. We had short conversations and long conversations, we learned a lot about yoga therapy from one vet who was absolutely sold on it! They have classes there at the VA and he comes 3 times a week. One very friendly lady came by three times for the molasses cookies that Kris Parr had made for them. They were very good. At the end of our time there we felt like we had provided something of value to the Vets we served. A few cookies and a glass of lemonade isn’t really much, but coming and spending the time with them, chatting and showing them that we value them, and the service that they have given to our country is worth a lot to these folks. This is a worthwhile mission project and I hope that more of you will take advantage of this opportunity to make a difference in someone’s day.
Comments from Marilyn and Donald Wade Jones:
The “SAINT STEPHEN POURS COFFEE” Report
Our first time at the VA went well. We followed the directions on the Treasure Hunt Map given us by our fearless leader, Charlotte Ray. We zipped up to the second floor to meet volunteer coach Celeste. The coffee was already made so we were ready to go out to meet and greet. We think the word “free” was a big help to our newfound popularity. We started at noon and the time seemed to fly by. We enjoyed our experience and they enjoyed the coffee.
Marilyn and I hope that one of you will tag along with us at some time in the future. Marilyn mentioned that the center is short on reading material, so if you have extra magazines to donate, bring them along.