Every Time A Bell Rings, A Giles County Volunteer Gets Wings

It's the end of the year, and the Giles County Historical Society Museum complex will soon be closing from January 1st to March 1st. The Historical Society would like to take the opportunity
to thank all those who volunteered throughout the year providing much-needed support for our organization and activities. Volunteers perform a variety of tasks: greeting visitors and giving tours, assisting with genealogical and historical research, helping to mount exhibits and decorate our beautiful historic house, and providing refreshments for events. Volunteer parents have helped us manage large groups of children for our school outreach activities, and re-enactors and artisans truly transform our cultural heritage into "living" history.

Volunteers, however, are not only vital to the Historical Society, but to many organizations in
Giles County. So, in our take on "It's A Wonderful Life", thank you to all those who volunteer throughtout the year. An essay by the late humorist Erma Bombeck says it perfectly:

So Long, Volunteers

I had a dream the other night that every volunteer in this land had set sail for another country. I stood smiling on the pier, shouting, "Goodbye phone committees. Goodbye disease of the month. No more getting out the vote. No more playground duty, bake sales, rummage sales, thrift shops, and three-hour meetings."

As the boat got smaller, I reflected, "Serves them right, that bunch of yes people. All they had to do was put their tongues firmly against the roofs of their mouths and make an "O" sound-no. It was certainly have spared them a lot of grief. Oh, well, who needs them?"

The hospital was quiet as I passed it. The reception desk was vacant. Rooms were devoid of
books, flowers, and voices. The children's wing held no clowns, no laughter. The house for the
aged was like a tomb. The blind listened for a voice that never came. The infirmed were imprisoned in wheelchairs that never moved. Food grew cold on trays that never reached the hungry.

The social agencies had closed their doors-unable to implement their programs of scouting, recreation, drug control; unable to help to retarded, handicapped, lonely and abandoned. Health agencies had signs in their windows: "Cures for cancer, birth defects, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, etc. have been cancelled because of lack of interest."

The schools were strangely quiet with no field trips and no volunteer classroom aides. Symphony halls and the museums that had been built and stocked by volunteers were dark and would remain that way. The flowers in churches and synagogues withered and died. Children in day nurseries lifted their arms, but there was no one to hol them in love.

Alcoholics cried out in despair, but no one answered. The poor had no recourse for health care or legal aid. I fought in my sleep to regain a glimpse of the ship of volunteers, just one more time. It was my last glimpse of a decent civilization.

--Erma Bombeck