Whether you are a Master Gardener or a master of benign neglect as far as plants go, gardening has a certain amount of faith attached to it. We hold a seed or a small sprout, we cover it with soil, give it some water, maybe a little plant food or some mulch, hope the sun shines and that the rain falls. We may pray that dangers along the way don’t break its spirit, like those choking weeds, hungry critters, and funny fungus. Maybe we will, in due time, have flowers or vegetables and claim ourselves brilliant farmers and friends of the earth.

It is an easy metaphor to play with for our real life backyard gardens. But, in truth, we are gardeners all the time. We are planting seeds all the time. We are planting seeds with each interaction we have during our day. With each encounter we leave something behind that has the potential to take root and grow. What will these encounters
grow into? Which ones will grow and bear good fruit? Which ones will whither and die?

Most of these “seeds of encounter” we don’t even realize we have planted, and most we will never know the fruit they will bear. Teachers don’t see students again; parents do their best and pray and hope; friends and classmates drift apart; chance encounters don’t even register.

A seed bore fruit at the Neighborhood Center recently in one of the women who graduated last year in our “Women On The Move” Program. This is a demanding program entailing weekly meetings for nine months with a goal of attaining economic self-sufficiency. The women in this program are courageous and tenacious and create bonds with each other which survive well past the end of the program.

Unfortunately, a home accident took the life of one of these women several weeks ago. This happened at a time when the seeds planted at the Center had taken root in her life and she was blossoming in ways her family and friends had not
seen in many years.

We did not know how deeply the Center had touched her until we were told that she had named the Center as the sole beneficiary of her estate because it was here that she had found her life again.

We never know….. We never know what fruit the seeds of our actions will bear.

With this Newsletter we are launching our 2011 Annual Appeal. You receive Neighbor-to-Neighbor because you have supported the work of the Center through the years. With your help you have enabled programs such as Women On The Move to function – many of these women now have full time jobs, are home owners, or are on a career path.

You have supported countless people getting the health care and counseling assistance they need when they have no insurance. Currently we are scheduling over 26,000 appointments annually. In the last seven months we have helped over 1,500 individuals find health care either at the Center or in some other appropriate place with one of our
community partners.

We cannot do this work without you. We receive no other funding but the support from the community. We rely on you and the hard work of the 250+ volunteers who give us over 1,000 hours a month in time and talent to serve our neighbors and make a healthier community.

I ask only what you are able to give. I ask that you let others know about the Center, and I ask for your prayers for the volunteers, the staff and for our patients and clients. Health Is A Community Effort….You Are Our Community!

–Christine Wagner, SSJ

A few years ago a good friend gave me a small metal sculpture of a stick like figure holding a fishing line with a lovely fish on the end. When I place it on the edge of my bookcase, the figure and fish balance each other perfectly and actually can rock back and forth in a beautiful dance - perfect balance; each helping the other; each borrowing just enough from the other’s energy and resources to stay in harmony.

In the past few months I have received two heartfelt notes from donors with their anonymous gifts where they expressed their feelings that our requests for donations were  too many and too frequent. Without their names I was not able to respond to them personally, but they most certainly piqued my interest and thought. And so, as I respond to them, I share my reflections with all of you.

Our work at the Center is primarily about serving our neighbors in the community, those in our midst from all over Monroe County who do not have health care, access to mental health counseling, no dental services, or just do not know where to turn to get help. As you know, our patients and clients are served by a large volunteer staff of 250 who themselves come from all over the community. Matching these volunteers and patients/clients is, in itself, a huge balancing act.

All of our communications with you, whether it is this Newsletter, an invitation to an event, an announcement, or our fall or spring appeal, is meant to bring you news of the Center first, and yes, there will always be an opportunity, if you wish, to contribute financially or in other ways.

We need you, first and foremost to be ambassadors of the Center, to let people know we are here to help, to let them know of our services, to be informed of how health care is playing out for the uninsured in our community.

We would also like you to accept our invitations to make donations to the Center as you are able, and not see them as a burden. Your contribution may be something from our wish list, it may be an offering of prayer, it may be a large or small financial donation, but only you can judge what keeps you in balance and in harmony. I ask you to keep your hearts open to the news of the Center, which is really news about our neighbors in need, and then always pay attention to that which keeps your own life in balance.

I want to say thank you to everyone who contributed in any way to the success of our annual event, the Festa Italiana this year. It was spectacular – beyond our wildest  dreams! Thank you to all who attended and I know you will want to mark your calendars for next year’s event, Wednesday, June 6, 2012.

There are lots of happenings in the health care world which we will keep you apprised of as the months roll on into the fall. Please let anyone you know who is not getting the health care attention they need to call the Neighborhood Center for an intake appointment – we are also looking for health care, mental health and general volunteers. Just  give us a call. Enjoy the summer.

–Christine Wagner, SSJ

It’s 5:30 AM on the morning of supposedly the “Big Snow Storm” of the winter. I am imagining you reading this about a few weeks from now, remembering the snow, the commute to work, the school cancellations and hoping spring comes pretty soon.

What am I doing at work at 5:30 AM writing the newsletter? Just taking care of business. Coming in early to check out the roads. Getting a sense of what the volunteers, patients and clients will have to face this morning and how we might have to tailor the day. Doing a little shoveling before we hit the sidewalks with the snow blower.

It is also very quiet here now. In these early days of the new year when politicians are delivering their “States of the Government” addresses, I get to think about the “State of the Center.” It is pretty amazing really.

At the end of 2010 we were experiencing a surge of calls from people who had never been to the Center before, “new patients” to us. Those coming to us for the first time present a challenge of medical assessment, history taking, record gathering and often they present with very complex health conditions that have not been attended to for awhile because of lack of insurance. Quality care in this instance takes quite a bit more time than for an established patient.

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