Lubbock Mayor's Annual Beans and Cornbread Lunch in support of Hospice of Lubbock.

March 4, 2022 is the 33rd annual Lubbock Mayor's Beans and Cornbread Lunch (with all the fixins)  in support of Hospice of Lubbock.  Hospice of Lubbock provides care for patients with insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, but also provides care for unfunded patients, not just in Lubbock, but in the surrounding counties. As you know, the Hospice mission is to provide end of life dignity, palliative care, and respect for the patient's wishes in the final days 

Typically, this lunch is a major fundraiser for Hospice of Lubbock.  It has included speeches of support, not just from the Mayor of Lubbock, but also from Mayors from surrounding communities and other people who support the Hospice mission.  It has also included opportunity to network with like minded citizens of Lubbock.  In the past, it has also included local music groups providing entertainment. 

Well, because of COVID 19, in 2021, Hospice of Lubbock joined with the YWCA to do a drive through luncheon, and it was very successful, and will be repeated this year. Tickets can be purchased at https://covenanthealth.ejoinme.org/beansandcornbread. Even if you do not want to do a bean and cornbread lunch, you can donate at Hospice of Lubbock | Covenant Health.  

Fundraising

Have I posted this before?  I apologize for repeating myself, but if I do, I obviously believe it is worth repeating.

This is a commentary on school fundraising projects, in which my grand niece and nephew are involved.

When my siblings and I were growing up, our family and neighbors supported our efforts in church, scouts and school, and I now try to “pay it forward.”

If you don’t mind a little story. Many years ago, some neighborhood boys were selling chocolate bars for the Boys and Girls Club to go to a Texas Rangers game.  I do not eat chocolate often, but they came by every day, (They actually watched for me to come home from work, and met me at the garage!) and I took turns buying a bar a day from them. (I brought the candy to work, and left it in the break room.)  The older boy said “I bet if we were selling dog biscuits, you’d buy a whole case.”  (That was when my dog-child Mack was alive.) He was right.  A couple of years later, that same older boy rang my doorbell.  He said he was helping his little sister with her kindergarten fundraiser, and he was showing her how to do it and who would buy!  He was right. I was actually pleased that the children in my neighborhood knew that I would support them. 

A Night to Remember

The major fundraiser for Catholic Charities, Diocese of Lubbock, is "A Night to Remember."  It is a giant cocktail party with a silent auction, live auction, and give away drawing.  It was a nice night tonight.  The food was good:  I ate shrimp and crab, among other things.  The variety was good. 

The prizes were good, but I did not bid on anything.  There was not really anything I could justify.  I could just give the agency money if I wanted.  But the fervor and excitement were missing.  That is too bad.  A climactic ending gives momentum for the next year.  Something we need to talk about for the future.

Catholic Charities, Diocese of Lubbock, Night to Remember

Tonight was the major fundraiser for Catholic Charities, Diocese of Lubbock, (http://cclubbock.org/ {I hesitate to cite the website because it is so drastically out of date.})   Night to Remember.   It is like a giant cocktail party with silent and live auctions.  I believe it was a very successful night.   It was fun.

I never went to this activity when I was employed at Catholic Family Service.  But, now that I am on the board, this is the third time I attended.  (The first year I was on the board, I was out of town for that date.)  I had  a pleasant evening. Usually I see a lot of people that I know, "old timers" from Catholic Family Service.  Less so tonight, although there were some people I knew from yesteryear and from my current involvement with the agency.

It was a nice night.  I think some serious fundraising occurred. 

West Winds Brass Band Concerts

One of my favorite summer activities is to attend the West Wind Brass Band http://westwindsbrassband.org/index.php concerts on Sunday nights in June and July, at Wagner Park.  The first of the season is tomorrow night, but I will miss it because the Catholic Charities, Diocese of Lubbock http://cclubbock.org/index.html Night to Remember fundraiser is tomorrow night. I regret the conflict, but I will enjoy going to the other concerts. And, I will enjoy the Night to Remember. 

Day Off

I had the day off.  It is complicated, but Texas Tech Health Sciences Center does not recognize all of the state holidays like Confederate Hero's Day (which generally coincides with Martin Luther King Day, which the state observes as a national holiday), Texas Independence Day, San Jacinto Day, Juneteenth, or Emancipation Day, LBJ Day.  Because of this, we are granted an extra 24 hours a year of "holiday comp" to make up for the lost holiday time (this is a business decision: the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center clinics need to be open on these days, generally. But this is good, so we can take the time off at our discretion. Personally, I think that is a good idea. And although I work at the Montford Prison, we follow the TTUHSC clinic schedule.) We are supposed to use "holiday comp" before we use annual leave.  "Holiday comp" is good for up to 12 months, and is earned at the rate of 2 hours per month.  So, "holiday comp" I earn in March 2015 needs to be used before March 2016.  My "holiday comp" never lapses.

Even so, as state employees, we have to have the same holiday time off as other state employees.  So, if some of these weird state holidays fall on a weekend, we do not need to get the extra time off.  But if these holidays fall during the week, we do need to get the extra time off. Sometimes, depending upon how the Christmas and New Years holidays fall, we get extra time off during those holidays.

This fiscal year, we needed to get even more time off.  So we were granted a "spring break holiday."  (Some years we are granted 2 spring break holidays, most years, we are granted none.)

So, I had the day off on March 20, 2015.  I did not sleep in, because I had physical therapy at 8 AM at Spectra http://spectraphysicaltherapy.com/.  I always tell my therapist I have as much time as I need to be in therapy, but he worries about schedules for people, and tries to get them out in a timely way. This is amazing, he does not care how much time HE spends with people, he just does not want to impose on their schedules. (How many medical professionals do you know who have this philosophy?) So, sometimes my therapy session lasts an hour; sometimes, like today, it was over an hour.

I did some work for NASW today, getting out snail mail announcements about our annual ethics workshop to local members for whom we have no email addresses.  I sent the brochure out last night to the email addresses.

I reviewed the evaluations for the March South Plains NASW CEU luncheon meeting. I like to do this so we can give the speaker feed back.

I printed the certificates for the "Field of Service" acknowledgements for the South Plains NASW awards banquet on March 24, 2015.

I went out for lunch at Hong Kong http://hongkongsuperbuffettx.com/.  I like the selections on their buffet, (even though they do not always get good marks from the health department) and I usually bring a book, as I did today. I pay attention, and if they get really busy, I leave, but if they have open tables, I sit, eat what I want, and enjoy the hot tea while I read. Which is what I did today.  As I paid my tab, the cashier asked me about my book Team of Rivals http://www.doriskearnsgoodwin.com/books.html#team-of-rivals and I explained it to her, including it was the book that a small part of the movie Lincoln was based on. She remembered the movie, and wrote down the name of the book, and acknowledged she could get it at the library. The last time I ate at the Hong Kong, this same person told me she had seen me come in alone, and read and eat.  She said she did the same thing at a restaurant, and found it very relaxing. That was so nice of her to share.  She is Oriental, and her English is not good, but she is able to make her information known. How neat!

Later, I had the tires on the car rotated at Discount Tire http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/home.do?utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=discount%20tires&utm_campaign={campaign}&s_kwcid=AL!3693!10!5370619247!26744860943&cid=1d5e418c-2789-4f35-a8fe-6db8f4d35951&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Brand%20-%20DT%20|%20Exact%20(W.%20Texas)&utm_term=discount%20tires.  I also brought my book, and read.  It was very relaxing to just read while the car was being tended to.

Then, I went to the Lifestyle Center http://www.covenanthealth.org/Our-Services/LifeStyle-Centre.aspx for a swim session .  Since I did physical therapy today, I know that doing another routine would aggravate my pain. So a swim session was calming, relaxing, and the water was very warm, which was an added benefit.

I did my weekly shopping after that, at Wal-Mart.  The clerk who checked me out was fabulous:  she told me to leave all of "the big stuff" in the cart, put the cold stuff in the insulated bag, and even recognized it had a zipper. She even asked me if I needed carry out assistance!  I sent a recognition to Wal-Mart about her, tonight.

I had expected to watch the Celtic and the Spurs  http://www.nba.com/ play tonight on TV, because earlier in the week, the game was advertised. However, tonight, the game was pre-empted by the Dallas Mavericks and the Memphis Grizzlies. Boo Hiss.

Oh well, I did some online puzzles, did some fundraising research for Catholic Charities, Diocese of Lubbock http://cclubbock.org and worked on this blog.

I hope now to settle in and do some reading before I retire.

Tomorrow, I will do some housework, some yard work, and go to the Lifestyle Center to again do some exercise.

PBS Fundraising

It is that time of year, faithful viewers, fund raising on your local PBS http://www.pbs.org/ station. My local station is KTTZ http://kttz.org/channel-5. It is affiliated with Texas Tech University http://www.ttu.edu/, after a brief and, and in my opinion, stupid dissociation. 

Tonight is music night:  we saw big band programming, and now we are getting "malt shop" music programming. Sometimes I call in to make a pledge, to get a promotional gift, since I know I am going to probably spend the money, anyway.  But mostly, I just watch the show.

I send a monthly donation to both PBS and NPR http://www.npr.org/. I do not usually pledge.  For a couple of reasons.  I work for Texas Tech, and once a year, my employment "contract" from Tech indicates it is not a guarantee of employment, should funding become unavailable.  So, I figure why should I make a commitment to Texas Tech when they cannot make a commitment to me?  The other reason I do not pledge is because I am going to send money, anyway, so I do not need them sending me paperwork to remind me.

A few years, after the fundraising period, I would get a pledge notice, even though I did not pledge.  I would return it to them and tell them I send a donation regularly, but if they do not leave me alone, I will stop sending a donation. It feels like they are being greedy by sending me a pledge notice when I do not pledge.  I think that is poor customer service. 

The thing about pledge week is that the programming excitement and quality is at a higher level than most other weeks of the year  But, over the :years, I have found myself watching more and more PBS programming.  I admit it, I am hooked on "Downton Abbey" http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/downtonabbey/ or http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2720864/It-s-Downton-confidential-Fresh-scandals-new-secrets-s-sneaky-peek-Series-5.html.  I like Doc Martin  http://www.pbs.org/programs/doc-martin/, also.

Years ago, I become hooked on Masterpiece Mystery http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/mystery/index.html , especially "Hercules Poirot" and "Miss Marple."  Some of the others did not do much for me. But I did like Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/primesuspect6/. 

I am not so enamored of no commercial interruptions:  some times I need the break.  But, I have the TVs set so I can move around the house and keep up with what is happening.

So, the point of this is to also encourage you to donate to PBS if you watch their programming.

School Supply Drive At Monford

Today we received announcement that the Montford Medical and Psychiatric Unit http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/unit_directory/jm.html - TDCJ http://tdcj.state.tx.us/ and CMHC http://www.ttuhsc.edu/som/cmhc/ staff are being encouraged to donate school supplies for foster children in the community.  A few months ago, we were asked to donate food, diapers, and other essentials for people in the community. And we did.

I know the person who is spearheading these drives means well. But I wonder if this person understands that on a standard correctional officer salary, without overtime, many of our correctional officers would meet the financial guidelines for services with community agencies.  And, many of our non-licensed clerical staff would also probably fall into those categories.

The staff at Montford is generous. But we need to take care of and support our own. And we have, when one of our own has had a tragic, or life changing event. But maybe we need to be more sensitive about our fund raising events.

A Night to Remember

Tonight I went to A Night to Remember the primary fund raising event for Catholic Charities, Diocese of Lubbock http://www.cclubbock.org/. This is a yearly event.  The best way I can describe it is a giant cocktail party with heavy hors d'oeuvres, with silent and live auction items, and a final raffle.

This year, it included a live band, with nice jazz/swing style/club music.  The are called Ad Hoc, and they did a very nice job! It added so much to the atmosphere!

There is a professional auctioneer who has done the last three live auctions. His part of the night is a show in and of itself.  I really enjoy that!

It was a good night.  I did not successfully bid on anything, which is fine, because that means someone else paid more than I offered for the items I wanted.

It was a fun night.   I think it was successful.

Fund Raisers

Where I work, we have a Christmas party every year.  During the year, we do fund raisers so the employees and their families can attend the Christmas party at no cost. Some years, there is lots of food and door prizes. Some years, there is mostly food.

But we have fun fundraisers at work. This year, one of the fund raisers will be an Easter Basket silent auction.  We have done this in the past, and it is a lot of fun.

The baskets vary:  from piddly toys, gifts and what not to extravagant gifts, including vacation get-a-ways, and other big ticket items.  We are doing Easter Baskets again this year. My department is sponsoring 4 baskets:   Made with Love, Chocolate Lovers Basket, Spa Basket, and Car Care Basket.  I have acquired something for each basket this weekend, and will bring it to work this coming week.

It will be fun to see what baskets are available and what they include.