2021 Volunteer Connection Zoom Schedule (first two months!)

 

1/1 Happy NEW Year!!! NO Volunteer Connection Zoom Meeting Today.

1/6 TRUvie Movie: OBIT (6:30pm to 8:30pm) Zoom Code: 850 229 3682 - Obit is a documentary about the talented journalists who work the Obituary desk at The New York Times. If you are a New York Times obit reader, you will enjoy putting the names with the faces of the bylines you see each day, veteran obit writers Bruce Weber, Margalit Fox, and William Grimes, some of the best and most prestigious writers on the NYT staff. Frequently given only a few hours’ notice before their columns must go to press, these journalists race against the clock to capture the entirety of human lives within the span of a few hundred words. How do you choose who is important enough to be featured? Is a person important enough for 500 words? 600? 800? Do they warrant a picture? Who gets their obituaries put on the front page, who gets a few paragraphs in the back pages? Even in death there’s a hierarchy of power.  Over the course of a single day, Obit tracks the construction of an obituary, from idea to interview to composition to print while offering a lesson in history, a glimpse behind the scenes at the New York Times, a course in journalism, and a clinic in succinct writing.  Obit is an irresistibly insightful film that will answer every question you ever had about obituaries plus the questions you didn’t know you had.  You will leave with the understanding that obits are more than resumés of the deceased; obits are everyone’s last chance at life. Remember George Burns, who lived to 100? Asked about his typical day, he answered: “The first thing I do each morning is to read the obituaries in the newspaper. If I don’t see my name, I go make breakfast.”  

1/8 Book Club: The Five Invitations by Frank Ostaseksi led by Mike Reagan.

The Five Invitations, an exhilarating meditation on the meaning of life and how maintaining an ever-present awareness of death can bring us closer to our truest selves. In his thirty-plus years as a companion to the dying, Frank Ostaseski has sat on the precipice of death with more than a thousand people. A renowned teacher of compassionate care-giving, Ostaseski has distilled the lessons gleaned over the course of his career into a powerful and inspiring exploration of the essential wisdom dying has to impart to all of us about how to forge rich and meaningful lives. The 'Five Invitations' - Welcome Everything, Push Away Nothing; Bring Your Whole Self to the Experience; Don't Wait; Find a Place of Rest in the Middle of Things; and Cultivate a Don't Know Mind - show how death can be the guide we need to wake up fully to our lives.

1/15 Volunteer Connection Meetings Planning Calendar for 2021: Bring topics you would like to discuss and what you would like to learn in this New Year. We are open to all ideas and if you have a particular talent that you would like to share with the volunteers please let us know.

1/22 Open Books – Volunteer Patient Recollections. Featured Volunteer: Mike Arellano. Listen to this volunteer’s experience of his patient’s story and the lessons Mike gained. Share in the conversation and process your own experience(s).

1/27 Volunteer Support Group meetings 5:30pm-7:30pm with Richard Mercer- Richard will be discussing “Resilient Grieving” by Lucy Hone and inviting discussion from this topic. Zoom Access code 850 229 3682

1/29 VC Meeting w/Meredith Parfet, Chaplaincy Intern- Please see Meredith’s blog below about her upcoming topic of Why We Need Imagination, Not Resilience-(https://www.mindful.org/why-imagination-not-resilience-might-help-you-heal-from-heartbreak/).

2/3 TRUvies Movie Night-A Family Undertaking (6:30pm-8:30pm), Zoom Code: 850 229 3682.

This video documentary explores the complex psychological, cultural, legal and financial issues surrounding an important and growing new trend: the home funeral movement. A Family Undertaking profiles several families who have made the decision to forego the typical mortuary funeral and instead prepare their loved ones at home for burial or cremation.

2/5  Book Club: Title TBD

2/12 Donor Alliance: Mallory McClain, Learning & Development Specialist

Join us on Friday, February 12 for an overview of organ and tissue donation presented by Donor Alliance. Learning & Development Specialist, Mallory McClain, will explain who Donor Alliance is, how the donation process works, what some common myths are and how you can get involved. National Donor Day is February 14 when all are encouraged to #StartTheConversation. As a Hospice Volunteer, Mallory knows the importance of discussing this topic with your loved ones and will connect this to our work.

2/19 PCC Presentation – Chad Hartmann (Have Plan B!) PCC = Patient Care Consultants! They are so much more than sales and marketing.  Join us in meeting with this group to see what all they do for TRU Community Care.

2/24 Volunteer Support Group meetings 5:30pm-7:30pm  Zoom Access code 850 229 3682

2/26  VC Zoom Presentation: PBS Newshour: Why African-American seniors are less likely to use hospice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dypoYEvBfs4  Black seniors are more likely than whites and Latinos to forgo hospice care. Due to deeply felt religious beliefs and a long history of discrimination in the U.S., African-American patients are often reluctant to plan for the end of their lives, and more skeptical when doctors suggest stopping treatment. Special correspondent Sarah Varney reports on efforts to change some of those beliefs. Gather with us to watch this short video and engage in some insightful discussion following.