December 2004
The holiday season can bring about some negative feelings: stress, depression, feeling overwhelmed, too many places to go, not enough shopping days left, finding just the right gift, family dramas, and diminishing bank balances. I’m currently reading Skipping Christmas by John Grisham, in which a family realizes they spent $6,100 on Christmas last year and are just going to “skip it” this year by going on a cruise instead. I’m not finished with the book yet, but I have a feeling a warm fuzzy ending is in store.
In the midst of this busy season, it is important that we remember what is truly meaningful in our lives. Consider this. Twelve thousand women in Pennsylvania will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year. Imagine getting that gift…a breast cancer diagnosis. Breast cancer doesn’t care that it’s Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa. Or that your family has traveled 2,000 miles to see the grandchildren. Or that you need to make all the costumes for the church’s holiday play.
Although we battle this disease year-round here at the PBCC, it is particularly difficult to learn of a diagnosis at this time. But there is something you can do. You can give the proverbial ‘warm fuzzy’. A $100 donation allows us to send a Friends Like Me care package to one newly-diagnosed woman. These packages are filled with information, uplifting materials and other soft touches such as perfume, a CD, and pink ribbon pins. We hear time and time again how helpful these packages are and how moved the woman was to receive it from us at no cost. Considering what we spend on toys, games, blinking lights, decorations and fruitcake, it certainly seems like money well spent.
Please put these women and their families on your shopping list. Make it your goal to give more than you get this holiday season. Visit our website to make an online donation.
Happiest of holidays to you.
Sincerely,
Heather Hibshman
Executive Director
