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VNA Today

May 2017

900 VNA Volunteers Celebrate Service

By royal invitation to the castle, VNA volunteers joined together to celebrate service to the community at Medieval Times yesterday. With the blowing of the trumpet, the VNA volunteer professionals were introduced, the crowd cheered as they heard the outstanding numbers of hours of service they provided to the community this year, and the queen’s court spoke about the impact volunteers made on vulnerable populations cared for by VNA.

Waving flags, volunteers showed the number of years they’ve volunteered with VNA, which ranged from one to more than thirty! Many groups were in attendance, from Dallas Fire Rescue to Bank of America, Southwest Airlines, to many of the local churches and civic groups. With door prizes, a raffle, and the inspiration of hearing about our Volunteer of the Year (article below), all the maidens and knights in shining armor left the castle with new resolve to recruit friends and family to join them in the quest to serve! We humbly tip our crowns to our amazing volunteers!

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VNA Summer Fan Drive Kick-off

		Each year we strive to meet a critical basic need for our Meals on Wheels clients by providing fans for those who don't have or can’t afford air conditioning. Our low-income seniors and adults with disabilities are homebound and a fan helps them live more comfortably and safely in the Texas heat. We expect to receive approximately 300 requests for fans by clients this year. We ask your support in dropping off a fan at any of our locations, accessing our Amazon wish list at http://a.co/hahyEoO or donating directly to http://vnaot.convio.net/site/Donation2?1640.donation=form1&df_id=1640&mfc_pref=T and mentioning our Fan/Heater Fund. Thank you for helping provide comfort and care!

Total Volunteer
Hours 2016

Total Volunteers
in 2016

Upcoming Events

Meals on Wheels Training
Thursday, May 4
1:30 pm - 3:00 pm

Talbots Shopping Day
Friday, May 5
10:00 am - 9:00 pm

McKinney Bereavement Luncheon
Wednesday, May 10
12:00 am - 1:00pm

Pet Food Delivery
Saturday, May 20
9:30 am

Volunteer of the Year Award

Thirty years ago, Mary Bartholow read a newspaper article about VNA looking for volunteers to deliver meals in South Dallas. She said, “Yes, this is something my husband and I can do!” Then she recruited some friends to join them, and shortly after that she approached her church, Saint Michael & All Angels Episcopal Church, to create a meal delivery team.

Mary would tell you she does a small thing, but a small thing repeated over and over becomes a big thing. Today, she and her church’s team of 200 volunteers deliver more than 17,000 meals on 14 routes throughout Dallas County every year!

Mary also serves as a lifetime member of the VNA Board of Directors.

At our volunteer appreciation event yesterday, we announced the creation of an annual outstanding Volunteer of the Year Award named after Mary. It will honor a volunteer or volunteer group who embodies her qualities of servant leadership, compassion, and cheerful giving. There will be a plaque displayed outside the volunteer training room at the VNA Haggerty Center to encourage and inspire future generations of volunteers. This year, we were thrilled to give the first award to Mary, who has given a lifetime of service to VNA!

Highland Park United Methodist Church Georgia Bates Award

Congratulations to Jan McClendon for receiving the Georgia Bates Award! Jan is an executive member of the VNA Board of Directors and like Georgia Bates, she has a servant's heart and passion for helping our senior neighbors remain healthy at home. Jan has been an advocate for VNA since 1986 when she began delivering meals. Within a year, she took on the mantle of group coordinator, and has been actively recruiting and supporting volunteers ever since. Jan has made service to VNA a family affair as her husband, Al, also delivers meals and her daughter, Kate, also serves on the Board of Directors. Thank you, Jan!

And Now the Rest of the Story…

We love sharing information with you about VNA, the clients we serve, the volunteers and donors who keep us going. Would you like to learn more? You can access our 2016 fiscal year annual report on the link below. Along with financial information, there are lots of interesting infographics about VNA and great tidbits of how you impact the agency and community. For instance, do you know how many miles were driven last year to deliver Meals on Wheels? How many chaplain visits? Our most common diagnosis for hospice patients? Check it out to find these answers and more!

If you’d like to take a look, here’s a quick link: https://www.vnatexas.org/who-we-are/financial-information.

How you can help

VNA is always looking for passionate volunteers.

Volunteer

Feed a senior or provide
hospice services.

Donate

Spread the word
on social media.

Volunteers are the core of our agency – VNA was founded by volunteers, our first nurses were volunteers, and even today, volunteers are involved throughout the organization. We just celebrated Volunteer Appreciation this week with a royal salute to 900 of our “knights in shining armor” at Medieval Times. I know some of our volunteers couldn’t join us, but we recognize and praise their significant, year-round efforts that make our Meals on Wheels program stronger and Hospice Care service more compassionate because of their generous acts of caring.

If you are a volunteer, thank you very much! If you aren’t one yet, we welcome you to join us in serving the North Texas community. Someone needs you today, and each hour spent volunteering with VNA means you have helped serve more people. Your time and ability to connect with clients and patients will always make a difference at VNA!

Gratefully,

President & CEO VNA Texas

© VNATexas.org 2016
1600 Viceroy Drive, Ste 400, Dallas TX 75235

VNA offers Meals on Wheels in Dallas County, and VNA Hospice Care and Private Care in Collin, Cooke, Dallas, Denton, Ellis, Grayson, Henderson, Hunt, Kaufman, Navarro, Rockwall, Tarrant and Van Zandt Counties.

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