Hello and Happy Holidays to each and every one of you.
As many of you know, a few members of the First State Retriever Club, Teresa Tebbens (treasurer), Linda Surmacz (secretary), Nicole Brooks (member), Amy Kernodle, State Representative Tim Dukes and I delivered a Thanksgiving box of food, including a turkey and many sides to the family of Ms. Ginger Thompson of Laurel, DE. Ginger is the sole provider for her two grandchildren, one of which has autism. Ms. Ginger is also battling her own illness, the devil’s very own cancer. This day was nothing short of touching to all of our hearts and we wish we could have brought this happiness back to each and everyone of our members, friends, family and neighbors who gave.
We followed that up by bringing more Thanksgiving joy as we proceeded to the Laurel Service Center to support our community as a whole. We were able to surprise the center director, Ella Collins, with a beautiful gift of over 1000 food items donated by our club members, sister retriever clubs and friends of our members. I can guarantee you we made several families' Thanksgiving a good one.
Today, we are launching our Christmas challenge. Ms. Ginger’s story just stays with all of us who were there. We all felt we had to do more for this family. Your Board of Directors voted unanimously to support this family for Christmas and we need your help. So, as many of you have already seen, we have launched a fund raiser on our website. https://firststateretrieverclub.com/events/ Please give generously from your hearts. This money is going straight to this family for gifts and whatever else they need for Christmas and beyond. We will run this fund raiser through our training day and then we will deliver this precious gift of love and joy to this wonderful family.
We are not done. We are also doing a secret Santa exchange at our December training day. Please bring a $10.00 wrapped gift with you. Let’s plan on some fun.
I will close with this little message from the bible, "a generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed", Proverbs 11:25.
God Bless each of you and have a safe and very Merry Christmas.
Sincerely, Will Kernodle - FSRC President