Like Mother, Like Daughter-Part 2

In an earlier post, I spoke about the influence that my co-worker at Bee, Bergvall, and Company, had on the community involvement of her daughters. I would be remiss not to talk about the influence that my mother has had on me. So this being Mother’s Day weekend, it seemed an appropriate time.

This past February I worked with my mom serving meals to about 45 adults and students at our youth group’s annual ski retreat at Camp at Old Mill. I arrived Saturday night, but my mom had started on Friday evening. She was assisted by two other friends we have worked with in the kitchen over the years. My mom work up each morning early to fix breakfast, stayed up late to clean up after the evening snack, and slept on the foam mattress in the room downstairs. She loved it. She enjoys the students and talking with the kitchen crew. My mom has done this for about eight years.

My mom’s best example when it comes to volunteerism is her faithfulness to what she committed to. Many years ago when I was four, I would not let her leave me in the Sunday school class. I cried and cried. So she started there as a teacher. And stayed there as a teacher of 4 and 5 year olds for 30 years. The only reason she stopped was because my dad was battling lung cancer and she wasn’t able to attend on Sundays for several months.

A year later she started working with the 2 and 3 year olds and has been with them for the past 9 years. All three things my mom has been involved in have had their rough times. Usually it’s been fun, but from time to time there have been kids that were hard to deal with. She has been kicked and punched (by 2 year olds—not teens). It has been tiring to do the same thing week after week at different periods. But she kept working through the hard times, and overall loves the kids.

Consistency like this is important to organizations. They need to be able to rely on dedicated volunteers who understand their organization and know how to carry out its mission. It builds a strong foundation from which the organization can expand. Thanks, mom for modeling this consistency for me.