THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, December 27, 1995 TAG: 9512270103
SECTION: MILITARY NEWS PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CHARLENE CASON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
``This food is being shared with you and your family through the efforts and kindness of your shipmates and co-workers at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth. We hope that your Christmas holiday this year will be a little brighter. God Bless You.''
This message was tucked inside each of the 170 shopping bags filled with a complete Christmas dinner distributed recently by the Holiday Assistance Program Committee at Portsmouth Naval Medical Center.
Military and civilian volunteers work all year to raise money for the 5-year-old project, which fills an average 200 food baskets on both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Each family who receives a dinner also gets a filled Christmas stocking for every child in the household, ages one to 11. That's 300 stockings this year.
But the generosity doesn't end there. Each pediatric patient who must spend the holiday in the naval hospital receives a $10 gift from Santa Claus as well.
``It's easy for people to get caught up in the spirit of the season,'' said Cmdr. Paul Pyrch, a chaplain who is assistant director of pastoral care at the medical center.
``But the impetus for this begins in January, and it continues all year. It is truly a labor of love. Everyone who gets this food has a job; they've just hit on hard times. This is our way of helping our own,'' he said.
Each of the 75 departments in the medical complex nominates military or civilian workers whose financial or medical problems may have put them in hardship during the holidays. The only reason to turn down any nomination is if the family is not going to be in town at the time of distribution, or if the couple is a two-member military couple with no children; they may eat a free holiday dinner in the complex's galley.
The committee set a goal of $10,000 for its holiday assistance program this year. It raised more than $11,000, primarily through the sale of ``civilian clothes day'' chits five times during the year. For $3, military employees could buy the privilege of wearing civilian clothes to work in the hospital.
Other money was raised through individual and group contributions from employees who work within the medical complex. One of the largest contributors is the Military Nurses Association, Pyrch said.
The ``real spirit behind the project for the past five years,'' he said, has been Petty Officer 2nd Class Debbie Myers, a religious program specialist who works in the hospital's pastoral care services office.
Coordinating the clothes chits, keeping track of contributions, contacting supermarkets and doing comparison shopping, listing all the nominees, picking up groceries and bagging them and, finally, distributing them, has become practically a full-time job for Myers.
She heads up a core group of about 10 volunteers that donates hundreds of hours to make sure every family who needs it gets help.
``The best experience we ever had was a couple of years ago,'' said Myers. ``Within 10 minutes of receiving his bag of food, a guy went back to his office and typed us a `thank-you' note and faxed it over to pastoral care services.''
Each bag of groceries is valued at $30, which includes a voucher for a $12 ham or turkey at a local supermarket chain, staples, canned goods, fresh fruit and rolls, gravy and dessert. One of the most popular items is Kool-Aid, Myers said.
The bags are prepared for a family of six, two adults and four children. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot
Debbie Myers fills bags of Christmas dinners for workers at
Portsmouth Naval Medical Center whose financial or medical problems
have put them in hardship during the holidays.
by CNB