Happy Holidays Thank you to Lisa Geyer for hosting one of our favorite events, our Holiday Brunch. What a wonderful time members had visiting with each other! The brunch was a nice way to relax for a few hours in the middle of the busy Holiday Season. Long-standing members as well as those new to the Alliance were present. Donations were collected for the Junior League Young Women’s Summit.
ALLIANCE UPDATE kathy rogers bcmsa president
Winter New Member Coffee How Can Home Ownership Affect a Family in a Positive Way? Our Fall General meeting was hosted by Kelly O’Shea. The speaker was Mr. Tim Daley, the Executive Director of Berks County’s Habitat for Humanity. Mr. Daley shared not only information about the extensive process by which a family is chosen to receive a Habitat house, but also the many ways that homeownership can affect these individuals. Just a few of the very long list of ways that owning a home can positively change someone’s life are: increased chance of graduating from high school, increased likelihood to participate in higher education, improved compliance with medical appointments and an overall improved sense of well-being. Habitat for Humanity assists in helping make the dream of owning a home a reality. The recipients of houses provided by Habitat for Humanity have to earn the key by undergoing extensive credit checks and investing 400 hours of their time essentially “learning how to be a homeowner.” While Habitat for Humanity is the largest provider of houses in the world, it greatly depends on volunteers in the community to give their time and talents. Volunteers are needed not only for assisting in the physical building of the house, but also in helping in the family selection process, mentoring families on how to manage a mortgage, and assisting at the organization’s nonprofit home improvement store called “Restore.” After hearing Mr. Daley’s talk, many Alliance members agreed that a volunteer day with Habitat for Humanity would be a fun and fulfilling way to help the community. We are going to look into this opportunity for next year. Donations of food and personal hygiene items were collected for the Greater Berks Food Bank.
22 | MEDICAL RECORD
|
SPRING
2014
Despite the snowy weather this winter, we were able to meet with several physician spouses who are new either to the area or to our organization. We are pleased to welcome the following ladies to our membership – Kim Gent, wife of Dr. Michael Gent; Beth Myers, wife of Dr. Stephen Myers; Lysette Ramos, wife of Dr. Christopher Ibrahim; and Allison Wilson, wife of Gregory Wilson. We look forward to seeing you at upcoming events! Thank you to Gretchen Platt who hosted a childfriendly morning of conversation and play. It is wonderful that we have so many members with young children and that the children are able to join in the Alliance events when schedules demand it. We are planning to have a babysitter at future meetings to accommodate members’ needs, as we hope to help those mothers with young children feel welcome to come to our events. Our ability to be flexible as our membership grows and changes is one of the things that sets our county’s Alliance apart from others, and keeps our membership growing.
Upcoming Spring Events
It is exciting that Spring is right around the corner, not only because of this long, snowy winter, but also because we have some exciting events planned for the next few months! Our Spring Meeting was held on March 20, 2014 at the home of Lisa Banco. We are honored to have one of our members and the President-Elect of the Berks County Medical Society, Dr. Lucy Cairns, speak to us about Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. Dr. Cairns is in the process of organizing a joint BCMS and BCMSA outing at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in September. She will speak to us about the history of the Sanctuary and will share information about determined conservationist Rosalie Edge, founder of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. We will surely be inspired after her talk!