RUMMEL Continued from pg. 1
Joe remembered her interest in the program. “Years ago, when I was following some of the Christmas Mother stories in the newspapers, I told him that I thought it would be just wonderful to be a Christmas Mother and he remembered that, so he volunteered me to do it,” Rummel said last week at an annual luncheon held each year to announce this year’s designee. Former Christmas Mother Betty Stanley introduced Rummel at an annual event held at the Doswell Community Center last week. Rummel welcomed the good news of her selection and said she is ready to hit the ground running for this year’s efforts. “I was just so excited and I thought it would be the most wonderful thing to help the less fortunate people in Hanover County,” Rummel said. “I’ve always loved Hanover.” She traces that special relationship to 1981, when she became the county’s first recreational program director, a time when the department consisted of only three people. “Without volunteers and that sprit of community support, we wouldn’t have had recreational programs,” she said. “Without the support of the county citizens and their willingness to get their hands dirty and volunteer, we wouldn’t have been successful because when you are a department of three you are vulnerable to budgets and things like that,” she said. Rummel said it’s the same
JIme Ridolephi/The Local
A number of former Hanover Christmas Mothers gathered last week in support of this year’s selection, Jeannie Rummel. They are, from left, bottom row, Hilda Kelly (1987), Connie Smith (2005), Jeannie Rummel (2021), Colene Deacon (2006), Betty Lee Stanley (2010) and Robin Priddy (2002). Pictured on the back row, from left, are Carolyn Bowles (2019), Cindy Balderson (2017), Carolyn Swingle (2010), GiGi Foster (2009), Melanie Goodpasture (2014), Gay Mitchell (2003), Ginger Stanlely (2016), Burnlie Montaigne (2020), Kay Beazley (2015), and Carmen Courtney (2011).
sense of community and compassion that make the Hanover Christmas Mother such a successful program. She served on the committee that began the Ashland Strawberry Faire and has worked on the Ashland Variety Show for years and said her dedication to the community makes it easy to promote the Christmas Mother program this year. Rummel retired in 2016 following 12 years of service as the Human
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Ashland-Hanover Local October 13, 2021
Resources Administrator for VCU’s Massey Cancer Center. “When you believe in a cause, it’s not hard to talk about it to people, and I just so believe in helping the less fortunate at Christmas time and other times of the year also,” Rummel said. Hanover’s Christmas Mother program also provides assistance for seniors by distributing gift cards to help them buy groceries or other necessities. Jones said he hopes those cards will be increased to $75 this year to assist senior citizens. The program shifted slightly last year due to COVID restrictions and toys were replaced with gift cards for the children and cards for groceries were distributed versus the traditional boxes of food distributed in the past.
No decision has been reached on the food boxes for this year. Jones explained that it is unclear if Hanover County Public School students will participate in the food drive due to pandemic restrictions. He said food cards are a viable option to replace the boxes if that becomes necessary. The project is community driven and a number of organizations and agencies participate in the annual event. For example, the Mechanicsville Rotary and the Ruritans sell food items at the annual Christmas Parade on Dec. 5 and proceeds assist the Christmas Mother. Rummel has already begun work on this year’s project by composing a letter distributed to area businesses and organizations asking for their support for the upcoming mission.
She plans on speaking to various clubs and organizations in the county during the upcoming weeks to garner support for the program. “There are lots of them that want to help each year, so I’m looking forward to that,” she said. “The clubs like to hear from the Christmas Mother.” Joe and Jeannie have 10 grandchildren that keep them busy and on the road often to attend various events that involve the group in age from 3 weeks to 20-years old. The couple is active in Mechanicsville’s American Legion Post 175, and participates in numerous programs at Fairmount Christian Church. “We are on the Shoebox Ministry committee and we do what we call the Moment of Hope lunches on the fourth
FRANKLIN JONES
Saturday of each month, where we prepare hot lunches for needy people,” Jeannie said. “We are so blessed and it’s so rewarding to do these things for people who really need it,” she added. see RUMMEL, pg. 9
