submitted by Assunta Deliman, Delta Kappa Gamma Alpha Nu
We often hear that “It’s the Season for Giving” during the months of Thanksgiving and Christmas.
It is so easy to “round up” the price of a purchase in a store.
It is easy to drop off clothing and get a receipt for tax purposes. Each of these donations is an easy, positive way to help others.
Karen Fisher, Delta Kappa Gamma Alpha Nu Co-President, and former teacher, simply gives her heart in all four seasons. Karen will never admit it, but what she does is the definition of the word “effort.” Karen’s weeks include a myriad of selfless giving. Karen’s days are filled with passion to help others.
When not gathering food for food banks, she is organizing, planning, and distributing products for various locations. Every day is a plan of action.
I will never forget being at her home for an Alpha Nu planning committee. Karen stated that she had no food to bring to the shelter. People would come for food and there would be none to give. I could tell by the look on Karen’s face that this was a problem that she would solve.
Another example of Karen’s altruism was her desire for our chapter to support the Kin Welcome Center in Furlong. Karen did not just read about The Kin Wellness Center in an article and send a check.
She congregated her Alpha Nu community and gathered Kin’s needs. The week before Thanksgiving, Karen and Barb Tantala, another Alpha Nu member, delivered over 50 comfort bags to the Kin Wellness Center.
Each comfort bag included materials that would provide comfort: fuzzy socks, Chapstick, mints, candy, and hand sanitizer. The Kin Wellness Center (www.welcometokin.org), began with a wish of a cancer patient, Corinne Sikora.
She wanted a place that those on their cancer journey could go to gather, to relax, and to feel whole again.
The Kin Welcome Center was given the breath of life through the continuous effort of numerous local agencies.
Each day “behind the scenes” cancer support is in full gear. Cooking classes, yoga fitness, and therapeutic massage is only a small sampling of what is available at the Kin Wellness Center.
Ms. Sikora passed away on November 5th, 2022, but her unselfish wish will live on through the effort of passionate, and continuous, community support. As I think about all the effort that Karen gives in support of her community, it brings to light all the “behind the scenes” actions of selfless people that never get acknowledged.
People with busy lives who pick up the donations that are casually put in storage containers outside churches and other pickup locations. When you live in a community, the “Season of Giving” is 12 months a year.
It is not easy. It takes unwavering effort, as seen in the actions of the all the people “behind the scenes.”
The women educators of Delta Kappa Gamma Alpha Nu support many community initiatives. Literacy programs such as annual Grants-in-Aid, a Book and Blankie project, aimed at promoting literacy with new moms, and quarterly donations to food drives coincide with chapter meetings.
Alpha Nu also sponsors scholarships in higher education for those pursuing a career in education.
PHOTO CAP: Karen Fischer and Barb Tantala with comfort bags at Kin Wellness Center