A note from Kristen

Here a nice note from Kristin Schofield, Director of Volunteer Services, to the Community employee family:

I wanted to take just a minute to reach out to those of you who were not able to make the Holiday Lights on the Hill – Light the Logo event. . . .

Our Holiday Lights on the Hill tradition was started in 1983 to give us an avenue to remember. It gave us a way to memorialize someone who was special to us in some way. Some of our lights are given in honor or thanks of a person or event and others as a memorial to someone’s life. Over the years there have been many life lights purchased - 420 of them to date.

Many of lights out there – as you might expect are memorial lights; a light given as a celebration of a person’s life. We have lights from people from all over the hospital. In 1991, Marsha Connor, who was a nurse with us then, bought a life light for her son Navy Lt. Patrick Connor who was killed in the Persian Gulf War and another for his comrade Lt. Commander Barry Cook who was MIA in the same incident. A lot of you, I am sure, remember when that happened. There is also a light for hospital administrator Mark Miller who died here at CGH. Many employees contributed to his light. There are other lights that were purchased for loved ones none of us ever knew. I spoke with an employee this morning and she shared with me that she sees her mom’s life light every time she leaves here at night and it makes her smile. Parents, children, friends and spouses all share a special place on our trees.

Another group of the lights have been given in honor of someone - like a favorite physician. You see lots of docs in the memorial book – Lockwood, Changlai, Watts, Neulander but also lights for their staff and hospital staff like our volunteers, John Carnowski and his security team, the unit secretaries on Maternity and yes, even Tom Quinn has a life light on the tree!

As you can tell, the tree lighting. . . did not start out as decorating for Christmas. It started as a way to remember. To remind us of what is important and to celebrate the people who have meaning in our lives. This year we have moved back to the basics. . . by lighting the two trees out front that are reminiscent of our logo. These two trees were planted for the purpose of accommodating the life lights of the people we cherish. So this holiday season - when we leave here at night – or for some of us that are getting here in the dark - we can take a look at the lights and be reminded of
what they represent. . . .

We continue to celebrate and remember those loved ones you have asked us to light a light for. May this season be happy and healthy for you. Make memories – they are important.