Page 32 - Leisure Living Holiday 2015

Leisure Living Honors
A Few Volunteers Who Give Back To Our Community
“I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing that I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.”
- William Penn
Each year it is the tradition of Leisure Living Magazine to honor volunteers whose efforts make someone else’s life easier or better because of their own sacrifices of time and effort. There is a common thread that ties the annual honorees of the Leisure Living Magazine “Giving Back” feature and that thread is the recipients’ attitude of modesty and their desire to shine the light away from themselves. This year’s group is no exception.
~ Barb Clemons, Editor
Area Summer Resident,
Year Around Volunteer
PAT STEWART
By Sharon Sweda
This year we have added a recipient who is not a full time resident of Northern Ohio, but is clearly a full time volunteer
who spends most week-
ends from April until
fall at her Marblehead
condo. Pat Stewart
and husband Jim
purchased the
condo in 1988.
The Stewarts
were first
attracted to the
area because
of their love of
the lake, fish-
ing and boat-
ing. Pat is fully
engaged in the
Salvation Army’s
Toy Shop Auxiliary
in her hometown of
Cincinnati. Since 1976,
she has served as Secretary,
Vice-President, President and this year she and a good friend are co-chairs of the Book Project. The Book Project is a program created by The Toy Shop which involves the purchase of 6000, hand-selected books to be distributed to children at Christmas.
The book selections are an act of love and are accomplished by visiting 4-5 Scholastic Book Fairs, the Joseph Beth Warehouse and Ollie’s. The books are distributed along with dolls, toys and bears which were added in the past couple years.
“We added the Book Project in 2001 and dis- tribute them to children from infancy to eighth grade,” Pat explains. “In the past couple of years we added the bear project for 3-4 year old boys. The idea of adding bears was inspired by the dolls we have distributed since the beginning of The Toy Shop. Unclothed dolls are dressed in home- made outfits by local volunteers. Our annual fund raiser features a best-dressed doll contest with awards for a variety of categories.”
Stewart has made her work at the Salvation Army a part of her life and stresses that in spite of all that she does, the true gift is the goodness you receive when you give to others.
No Time To Slow Down! JOHANNA MOORE
By JoAnn Cummings
For some, retirement is a time to slow down. For Johanna Moore, 81, of Sandusky, the word retirement doesn’t seem to exist. “I will only quit work if my mind and body start to fail,” Moore said. In addition to still working as a registered nurse and as a behavior health psychologist at Firelands Regional Medical Center, Moore fills her time with lots of volun- teer activities. Prior to her current sched- ule, Moore worked as a nurse at GM for 20 years and as a surgical nurse at Providence Hospital for 30 years; so helping others is in her blood and is part of her life. In fact she still works four
32 |LeisureLiving Holiday 2015
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Pat Stewart