Editor's Notebook: Taking Time to Give 5 at Stewart's Caring Place

It's been five months since I sat in an office at AOL in Chicago listening to someone tell a roomful of new Patch editors how different this experience would be from traditional journalism.

One of the things I didn't give much thought to was the requirement that every Patch employee is required to volunteer five days each year to a charity in the area in which they work -- our Patch, as it were. The program is called Give 5. Patch also gives 5 percent of its advertising space, free of charge, to local charities from the communities we serve. (Please contact us to see if you qualify.)

Anyway, they're clearly serious about this -- and it's good to know we have a corporate conscience. But this certainly wasn't the first time I'd donated my time as a journalist. The difference is in the past I really didn't get to pick where my efforts would be devoted -- that had long ago been decided by the "suits." I was the muscle -- or more to the point, the scrubber, the stacker, the painter or the sweeper.

Now I'm the suit (sort of), and I had to decide where to go.  

I wound up at Stewart's Caring Place in Fairlawn, a non-profit organization that provides free wellness services people who have been touched by cancer.

Which, when you think about it, is pretty much me and everyone I know. I have heard about the center for years, but never really took time to know much about it. Maybe I was avoiding it because of my own history. My mother died of breast cancer, and I remember how sick she was -- of hospitals, of things that smelled like hospitals, of losing her hair, of being sick, of needing help... I guess it's been enough time -- all these years later Stewart's mission sounded like a good one for me.

When I got there early on a Friday morning, Volunteer Coodinator Candy Mirman told me Dr. Stewart Surloff was a local podiatrist who was diagnosed with cancer at about the same age as my mom. He, too was pretty sick of just about everything to do with having the disease. His inspiration was to create a place where folks could find a little peace, some information, support and confidence -- and where their loved ones could find those things too.  After he died in 2001 Surloff's family went to work to make his dream come true.

Stewart's is tucked away off West Market Street by Ridgewood in the back of a plaza. That's by design. 

"Sometimes people sit and they sit, and they sit in the parking lot before they come in," Mirman said. "For whatever reason, they need time."

Inside, Stewart's offers workshops, activities for children and families, alternative healing services like massage and reiki, tai chi and yoga classes. There's a resource libray, support groups and wig and makeup clinics. 

Children's activities include slumber parties and day camps.

Mirman said volunteers provided 5,534 hours of service in 2010. 

Many of the volunteers give their time to Stewart's big fundraising events, the annual Butterfly Gala in July and and the Road Runner Marathon in September.

Just as many drop by to spend a few hours each week working at the front desk answering phones, mind the library, the nursery or the wig room or provide homemade goodies for center events.

I spent the afternoon scrubbing out kitchen cabinets, rinsing recyclables and chasing cobwebs across the ceiling the morning after Stewart's volunteer appreciation event.

I knew what drew me there. Years ago my mother worked in a nursing home, so I know my way around an industrial kitchen. I went to work with her most weekends from 14 to 16, and woke up every holiday eve at 1:30 a.m. to make the drive to Mantua to cook the residents dinner for whatever holiday it was. Mom was always off on Easter, Christmas and what-have-you, but she could never seem to walk away without making sure those dinners were ready for the fill-in shift.

I complained, of course.

She said it would build my character.

Somewhere there's a jury still deliberating that last one.

But for a whole Friday morning at Stewart's I got to hear my mother's voice in my ear again in an empty kitchen.

The Stewart's Caring Place Annual Hope Walk steps off from Fairlawn Community Center at 9:15 a.m. May 14. Register on-line at www.StewartsCaringPlace.org. 

For volunteer, donation and other information call 330-836-1772.