Hamburgers and hot dogs? Yes, Don’s at it again!
Last month’s 4 East BBQ was a hit, the weather was great, Don and Barb enjoyed being over at Mercy Hall grilling and had offered to do it again. Would the weather hold? It looked like it would so we went with it!
By the time Barb, Don and I arrived at the hospital Katie, Kathy and Dina were upstairs setting the room up while Gladys stayed with our stuff downstairs. Andrea and Nancy were not far behind us. This was Andrea’s first luncheon with us, and Nancy had driven down on Friday from Connecticut to join us.
After every thing was up in the room I took Nancy over to Mercy Hall so she could see where we grill and do the Mercy Hall luncheons. Don already had the grills cleaned and the coals going.
We went back over to the room to finish setting up and things got pretty busy. Barb went back over to Mercy Hall to pick up the first batch of hamburgers and hot dogs from Don.
Most of the “niftie gifties” were with us this time. “Warrior Song – HARD CORPS” t-shirts for Marines and their Mom/Wife/Girlfriend/or Sister from an anonymous Elf; baby quilts, mom quilts, manly quilts and pillowcases from Bayside Quilters, cards from Cub Scouts, word search books, encouragement notes, and pantry bags. The pantry bags, quilts, pillowcases and notes were a little bit depleted by the time we remembered to take pictures.
We have the slippers and hats from Carole and the Castaways but with the temps being in the high 90′s and low 100′s, I decided to leave them home to save for cooler days. The music and movie CDs will come with us next time.
The cards Katie brought from the Cub Scouts are so cute!
Sometimes I wonder if people think we only serve Marines, but we serve ALL service branches at our luncheons. Seeing Army insignia on the doors is new to us so when we get home I look them up. This one, when I saw it, I thought it had to do with an Army Medic because of the snakes on it, and I was correct.
God Bless him, we know he has saved a lot of lives over the years and wish him the best.
It was a good luncheon. Menu was hamburgers, hot dogs, brats and all of the fixin’s, chicken salad, pasta salad, potato salad, tossed salad, green beans, of course the cheese, pickles and olives, fresh strawberries and angel food cake, cookies, smoothies and assorted drinks, different flavors of pie – apple crumb, blueberry, sweet potato, and… pecan? I forget. The grocery store sells them in half sizes so we were able to offer so many different kinds. Pretty cool.
Almost as cool as finding green bean casserole in cans for Thanksgiving the first year my Marine was deployed so many years ago… Things have come a long way since 2004, ’05. ’06… All kinds of care packaged-size things now that weren’t around back then. Medical advancement has come a long way, too. Lots more support groups now than there were then. Laws have changed as well.
One of them is The Family and Medical Leave Act Military Family Leave Entitlements. I will never forget during our first visit to the hospital in October 2005 when a Marine mom told us she had used up her two weeks leave while at Bethesda, and had to choose between staying there with her son, or going back to work. If she stayed, she was going to lose her job. Now, this was a HUGE company she worked with. She never did tell us who it was, just that it was big. She stayed with her son. Although families still have to make decisions like this at times – stay or go home for different reasons, the laws have come a long way. The latest updated information about The Family and Medical Leave Act Military Family Leave Entitlements can be found here:
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs28a.pdf
Thank you Barb, Don, Katie, Dina, Nancy, and Andrea so much for your help! Gladys, we missed having you with us. Thank you for helping out with the shopping and delivery. Job WELL Done!
Love and Hugs,
Headed SOUTH of the BORDER! To Richmond VA Medical Center!
The tables were set up when we got up to the room. The red white and blue tablecloths were a nice touch. We moved some of the tables around to suit the way we planned to serve. Main buffet table, then sandwich fixin’s and desserts on another table and on the third table we had the soup, the popcorn popper and the smoothie maker.
The Gunny brought up the microwave so we could heat the gravy and Paulette brought us ice to ice down the drinks and water. The menu was roast beef and gravy, ham, chicken salad, and rolls and biscuits if they wanted to make sandwiches. Potato salad, watermelon, tossed salad, potato soup, macaroni and cheese. To top the meal off were blonde brownies with chocolate chips and pecans, marshmallow brownies, and peach pie.
The atmosphere at the Richmond luncheons, after the initial setting up, is much more laid back than the 4 East luncheons. With tables and chairs in the room, the families and patients are able to sit down and eat in the room with us, and we’re able to sit there and chat with them. Paulette had music playing on a CD player. One of the Soldiers’ wives was there with their two little ones. The 4 year old entertained us with his dancing. An Airman entertained us with stories of when he was deployed, not just in Afghanistan, but in Desert Storm. The get together was nice, almost like having Sunday dinner at home with friends, except they are so far from home…
We gave the Gunny the “Warrior Song – HARD CORPS” CDs and t-shirts to give to his Marines that an Elf and the Warrior Song Project sent to us. We handed out the note packets to all of the Warriors.
Mercy Hall is a small transitional barracks for out-patients with the ability to live on their own, and is also for wounded Warriors on medical hold (med-hold for short) waiting for their discharge from the military. In most cases the residents of Mercy Hall do not have family members staying with them. We have seen a lot of changes at Mercy Hall over the past four years. The barracks used to house mostly Marines and a handful of Sailors, maybe a Soldier or two.
Inside of the box was a note:
The t-shirts and CDs were awesome and a great morale booster. Thank You to whomever sent them, and to the Warrior Song Project for being the intermediary for this random act of kindness.
Thank you to the staff at Mercy Hall for their help getting the word out about our luncheons and for helping us unloading and loading the cars. Katie, thank you for your help making the luncheon a success! You all are great!
Thanks also to the Chesapeake Bay Chapter of the Antique and Classic Boat Society for space in their vendors’ area at their Silver Anniversary Show at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum last weekend. Jim and Guy stopped by to see us. Jim, thanks for sharing your picture! It was great to see you both!
Front 1: The grilling. We cleaned the old coals out of the grills, loaded them up with the huge bags of charcoal and then, Sempeeeeeeeeer Guuuuuuuumby…
Meanwhile, Front 2: In the luncheon room, the ladies were busy setting the tables up.
He has been volunteering at Bethesda since at least 2006 and every once in awhile our paths will cross. It is always so nice to see him.
The combat surgical wing at Bethesda/Walter Reed is the beginning
To Marine Moms-Bethesda’s Supporters, thank you so much for supporting these luncheons. We could not do this without you, and your support is VERY much appreciated by the wounded Warriors and their families. The luncheons are a tremendous morale booster for them.
Our annual quilt raffle is going on right now. “Stars and Bars Forever” was donated to us by Bayside Quilters to raise money for the luncheons. (Thank You!!!) 100% of the funds raised from it will directly support the luncheons.
Semper Gumbiness! It happens! We’re used to it, have lots of experience with it, and have learned to flow with it, there are just some things we can’t control.
Menu:
To raise awareness about Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), March is National Brain Injury Month.