Over the Hill and Through the Woods – I never thought they'd be coming to my house. – This year, Anne and I will be preparing Thanksgiving for 12 – including our kidders, our three living grandmothers – both of her parents, and neighbors.
We'll be thankful for many things on what I have long considered my favorite holiday. They haven’t figured out how to commercialize it yet – and thankfully – for now at least, all of the shopping for Christmas starts the day after Thanksgiving.
If the events of 2010 don't present you with a multitude of reasons to be thankful – I offer the following:
On the national scene - there are two stories that lead me to cut out the articles from the paper and save them in a scrapbook for my children to see when they are older. The first was the ingenuity and hard work of all of those who helped respond to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
From our best and brightest engineers and technicians who worked to plug the pipe at the seabed to the thousands who took part in the cleanup process along the coasts, it is safe to say that the human response to a man made problem inspired and encouraged us.
Thirty-three Chilean miners spent sixty-nine days trapped deep underground, and from day one, thousands of people went to work to provide them support, nourishment and encouragement while design teams went to work on a rescue plan.
Not since I was a little boy watching events unfold on the TV from Midland, Texas, when baby Jessica McClure was rescued from a well, do I recall such pause in world activities for prayer and such joy as when the rescues were successful.
Closer to home, we're grateful for new school facilities in Strasburg, the latest local beneficiary of the Ohio School Facilities Commission plan to modernize school facilities. We've seen construction crews come and go from the Tuscarawas Avenue Bridge and the I-77, County Road 80 interchange on Dover's north end.
A group of local Veterans were surprised to find no representation of Tuscarawas County on the memorial path at Western Reserve National Cemetery. In a matter of months they have arranged to erect a monument there on Armed Forces Day, Saturday, May 21, 2011. These men and women have already given so much themselves, we're grateful for their example.
Many people are working tirelessly to see to it that Twin City Hospital remains a viable part of our Twin City community. After the emergency department abruptly closed, a generous benefactor emerged, and ensured that the emergency department would remain open.
2010 has been an interesting year for small businesses. Our company is not immune to the challenges of other small businesses, but I am especially thankful for my wife's ingenuity. When we decided to reduce our advertising budget in the phone book, she took those dollars and put them to use in a program we call the Geib Giveback.
Together with Amy Smith of WJER, Anne planned on donating $25 for each touchdown scored by the Dover and New Philadelphia high school football teams, to school related groups. The result is that more than $2,500 of contributions have been made to organizations from elementary parent-teacher groups to band boosters. We're delighted to re-invest these dollars locally, and neither of us mind not mailing a monthly check to some Chicago post office box for a bold in the yellow pages.
There are a lot of people lending their talents to area organizations. When you see a bell-ringer for the Salvation Army – or a volunteer coach at the YMCA, or poll-worker putting in a fifteen hour day to help you vote close to home, please reach out and thank him or her.
In serving families, we work together with a multitude of public servants –from the men and women who maintain and administer area cemeteries, those in law enforcement who help us navigate funeral processions to the cemetery safely, to those in churches who seek to minister to the bereaved. Our community is a better place for each of their contributions.
A number of wonderful community leaders went to heaven this year. We're thankful for the leadership and public service of people like the Rev. Willie Sherrell, Jim Reifenschneider, Jesse Sandy, Dick Demuth, Doris Godfrey, Russ Geisinger, Vern Mason, Vince Coniglio, Soapy Albert, Ken Courtright, Wheaties Andrews, Ray Eichel, Lou Clark and Max Miller. Some of these community servants gave their time, others gave their talents of leadership and visionary management, some left endowments to enrich future generations. All of them have given us an example of personal sacrifice for the benefit of the greater good.
We do well to remember each of them, and express gratitude and Thanksgiving for their gifts.
See you in December.
Brian Hanner is a board licensed Ohio funeral director and a Certified Thanatologist by the Association of Death Education and Counseling. He and his wife, Anne, own and operate the Geib Funeral Homes, Crematories and Remembrance Centers of New Philadelphia and Dover, Ohio. Share feedback or questions with Brian via e-mail at bhanner@geibfuneral.com
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