Friday 13 January 2017

March 11, 2009

Good Morning OOTC’ers:

Hope you had a wonderful Purim. Last night, Mishloach Manot, portions of food for our friends, was given to all of our 119 guests, with extra for the 16 overnighters.

Jews can always find a food to tell a story. In this case, it is the hamantashen. The outside of the hamantashen is just plain dough. The true flavor is concealed inside. Beyond the very ordinary veneer, the heart of the hamantashen is bursting with sweetness. Our guests appreciate the way that we share our holidays with them. One gentleman said that he would even consider becoming Jewish, but as a man, he has heard that conversion would be quite painful!

Another “regular” handed us a poem (on Ontario Jobs Now stationary.) Let me share:

All of us have to put a smile on tonight.
We have to love each other.
That is what Life is all about.
If you smile, we will know that
You made this meal for your people.
We hope the love will go home after with you.
God Bless.

Please remember to RSVP to the office, 308-8447, for the Volunteer Appreciation Dinner catered by Sweet Paradise! Kosher meals are available upon request. You’ll get that warm fulfilled feeling which can only come by socializing with other like-minded, like-hearted individuals!

See you all next week.

Cindy



Responses:

Cindy, speaking of pictures, I have a great one of Sybil & Louette together. One pic of the kitchen volunteers and another in the volunteer room. There's also one of Tim's head but that one is not quite as flattering. Perhaps when they need an embarrassing picture of Tim when he is accepting some award, it will magically appear in a PowerPoint.  (I could not be that mean or could I? Just be aware when I have a camera.) I wish we could give awards to our volunteers.  Some of them are so wonderful and caring to not only our volunteers but, also, to our guests. I witnessed Tim speaking so gently and kindly to one of our younger guests this evening.  He's such a gem.  He makes sure this young man is treated respectfully and to make him feel as if he is a member of one large family. Tim somehow has an insight on how important it is that this child feel loved and welcomed at our program and to raise his self-esteem.  FYI each week Tim jokingly refers to Lorraine & Didi as the McGuire sisters.  That's too far back for me to remember.  I refer to them as the Pigeon sisters from the Odd Couple. And Barry B. had a smile on him from ear to ear as he spoke about one of our
volunteers on how great they performed their work as a volunteer.  Norma - oh, how good she is in bringing in volunteers in a moment's notice.  She never fails you and she does so with a smile and so graciously. And those angels Joan & Morley!!!  What beautiful and loving people.  If you look closely, you can actually see their halos.  And what a cute couple they make. And Behrad - he's simply not replaceable and is so protective and caring of me.  The same with Sid.  Imagine him rooming with eight young ladies.  He has his own harem.  Another sweetheart. Cindy, I never take for granted the caliber of our volunteers.  Nor the caliber of our guests for that matter. I will certainly e-mail these pictures to Sister Carole-Ann as soon as I figure out how to do this with my new camera.  Oh, yeah, I have a fourth year techie son I can ask.  I will remind him of the number of hours I was in labor with him.  That should get him motivated.  ;) The program did operate well tonight.  I counted in total and there were 14 cancellations of our regular volunteers.  A few I knew about in advance but I almost fainted when I retrieved my phone & e-mail messages at 2:50 p.m. Usually there are no more than four cancellations which we can easily, easily handle but 14!!!  I sent out a few SOS calls to some of our four star volunteers and it sure worked.  I must have used the appropriate degree of panic and guilt in my voice when making the calls.  Now that takes practice.
;)

Anyway, my dear, please have a perfect happy birthday and I hope your special day brings you everything you wish for. Happy 30th!!!

Joanne

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