Gratitude

Located less than an hour from Ashland, the Massillon Museum is a wonderful art and history museum currently featuring exhibits on Fashion Outlaws, Masters of American Photography, and The Life of a Migrant Community. The museum spearheads a community-wide The Big Read, in which all local residents are encouraged to read the same book at the same time, Julia Alvarez’s “In the Time of the Butterfly.” There’s also a permanent exhibit of the Immel Circus, and best of all, admission is free – check it out soon!

I’ve been working with them on a capital campaign to expand their downtown location and to create dedicated space for the Paul E. Brown Museum, preserving their community’s unique football heritage. That fund drive received a tremendous boost from the state capital budget this week, and its announcement took me back about eight years to the day I held a million dollar check from the state of Ohio in my own hands.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t my tax refund. No, the payee on the check was The Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center here in Ashland. Thanks to the work of Dr. Lucille Ford and the support of then Senate President Bill Harris, Ohio provided support for the construction of the Kroc Center. While much of the project was funded by a gift from the estate of Joan Kroc, we’d been tasked with raising local matching dollars, and the state grant was an essential part of that fund-raising.

The new Salvation Army center opened in April of 2009, and as we drove in the less-than-delightful April snow last weekend, Larry reminded me of what we were doing seven years ago – preparing to march with the Salvation Army New York Staff Band from the tired old citadel on East Third Street to the sparkling new facility on East Liberty Street. There was no snow under our feet that Sunday, as the band’s brass music disturbed the Sabbath rest along Main Street. What a celebration we had that weekend, as we welcomed most of Ashland to the brand-new Kroc Center.

The marking of significant dates in the life of an organization, individual or community helps us reflect on where we’ve been and where we hope to go. So at this seventh anniversary, I do hope The Salvation Army’s expanded presence has blessed the Ashland community. That was the prayer of those who worked tirelessly on planning, fund-raising, and construction, and continues to be the prayer for The Salvation Army’s work in Ashland.

On a personal note, changes have occurred in my own life in the intervening years since that grand Dedication Day parade. I’ve said good-bye to my mother, and welcomed two precious granddaughters to our family, the lovely Madelyn Simone and the delightful Elizabeth Holiday. Faced with a change of assignment, I retired from full-time Salvation Army work, and now spend my days as a free-lance writer, doing whatever my hands (and computer keyboard) find to do – as well as spending time with those beautiful little girls. As a smitten immigrant, I do hope my presence has blessed the Ashland community nearly as much as I’ve been blessed by Ashland.

I’ve enjoyed watching the changes in our community as well. It seems as though we’re doing better economically than seven years ago, and I’m glad to see the gradual downtown revitalization. And how much fun was the Bicentennial Celebration! We shouldn’t have to wait another hundred years to have such a great party – are you up to the challenge, Rick and Kim Spreng?

As I’ve reminisced these last few days about my life’s intersection with Ashland and the Kroc Center, it’s been with an extreme sense of gratitude. Melody Beattie expresses it so well: “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

Thank you, Ashland, for feasts, friends, and a place to call home – here’s to a bright vision for tomorrow!