On December 1st, Faith in Action Georgetown is participating in #GivingTuesday, a global movement that invites people to shift their focus to charitable giving the Tuesday after Thanksgiving following commercial shopping days Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Your gift will help us provide personal protective equipment for our drivers, riders and staff as we continue to combat COVID.
Consider one of these gift amounts:
$25 provides hand sanitizer for the Go-Van-Go for one month
$30 covers one ride for a senior
$40 provides face masks for one month
$100 covers ride scheduling operations for one week
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Be Part of Ellie's story!
Give during #GivingTuesday on December 1 and help us provide needed transportation and support services to seniors like her! |
Ellie's StoryMeet Ellie. She's an 86-year-old former flight attendant who left a wake of broken hearts in her path, even the illustrious John Wayne. The daughter of immigrants, Ellie spoke fluent Spanish even though she was forbidden to do so in the school where she attended as a young girl. "They would punish you," she said. "We were not to speak Spanish because the teachers thought we were talking about them. And we were!"
As a young woman, she developed wanderlust, wanting to travel to exciting places. Thanks to her ability to speak Spanish, she was hired on as a flight attendant with an airline which took regular flights to Mexico. Her movie-star looks turned heads, and she tells of numerous brushes with celebrities, including sharing an elevator ride with John Wayne. "I had dinner with Cesar Romero," she remembered. "And men would send me gifts all the time." One passenger was so enamored, he painted a portrait of Ellie by memory and sent it to her through the mail. It hangs in her home to this day. But one man couldn't let her get away. After seeing her across the room at a dance hall, Roy made a beeline to ask her if she would go on a date with him. When he didn't show (because he wrote down the address wrong), Elida assumed he wasn't interested. Two weeks later at the same venue, Roy once again zoned in on Elida. "He told me he couldn't get me off of his mind and that he wanted to marry me," she said. They were wed the next day. They just recently celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. |
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Virginia's StoryThis is Virginia. At 100 years old, she has lived a full and eventful life. She graduated with a degree in business administration before going to work for a petroleum company in the '40s. That's where she met her husband, a civil engineer with the same company. Married during World War II, they went on to have many adventures together.
It was important to Virginia to expose her children to the world at large, and so travel became a central part of her life. She and her family traveled to far-flung countries around the world, and it's something she looks back on fondly. Which is why it was even more difficult for her when she realized she could no longer drive herself places. Faith in Action provided a way for her to still have her independence even in her later years. Learn more about Virginia in the video. |
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Ernie's story100-year-old Ernie is younger than most of us. To celebrate his birthday in February, he went skydiving. But what can you expect from a former Air Force sergeant?
It's not enough that he enjoyed a 69-year marriage to the love of his life, or that he is 100 years young. It's Ernie's enthusiasm and zest for life that is so appealing. After spending time in the Army, when WWII began he was called up to a new military division: The United States Air Force. There, he was the assistant to a General in Italy. After the war, he was asked to remain but, being the family man that he was, Ernie declined so he could return home to his children. Ernie and his wife spent their lives working in education before retirement. It took many years of failing health before they both realized driving was no longer safe for them to do on their own. That's when they called on Faith in Action. We were honored to step in to help them extend their independence a little while longer. |
