Taryn MacGregor – 18, athletic, and on her Christmas break from college – never thought anything could derail her happy-go-lucky life. That notion was all but snuffed out the moment her car collided with a concrete flower pot along Route 18 in downtown New Bedford. In an instant, she learned a profound lesson: life comes with nothing guaranteed – not even your next breath or next step.
It’s been one tough winter for the Fairhaven teenager, who might have easily died last December 20 in the post-midnight wreckage. The impact left her with a brain bleed, multiple fractures of the pelvis, a broken collarbone, and a broken neck. What came next was a string of difficult obstacles, like hobbling on crutches for weeks in a rehabilitation hospital, dealing with confusion, fighting the inability to move, and enduring the obvious pains associated with her injuries.
Even so, Taryn’s overall recovery has been a testament to great resiliency– to the point where, in just a few months, she is almost fully restored. This is a far different outcome from the fearsome scars and paralysis she witnessed in other young patients in the hospital. To her credit, she has grasped that reality and intends to do something influential and positive with her new lease on life.
To start, she has joined Lift-in-Love, a team behind the second annual area Serve-A-Thon, a fundraiser benefitting the Salvation Army and Mobile Loaves & Fishes to be held on Saturday, September 10, 2016. She’ll be lending a hand to raise funds for the organizations whose primary function is to lighten the struggles of the many hundreds of men, women, and children among us in need of the daily basics most of us take for granted.
How exactly does this work? The Serve-a-Thon invites everyone to participate in a way that helps promote the community and use their service or gift as a money-sponsored activity to benefit the Salvation Army and Mobile Loaves & Fishes. It is structured to allow people to contribute their labor in assorted community projects such as beautifying an historic park in Fairhaven, assembling or wrapping toys and clothes for kids in need in Acushnet, offering a hand to a litter-free neighborhood effort in New Bedford, working at the YMCA farm for a morning or afternoon in Dartmouth, or lending individual gifts from a living treasure chest that consists of every imaginable talent spread across our region.
Taryn MacGregor will exercise her particular treasure by joining her mom in a financially-sponsored cycling ride along the 10-mile Fairhaven-Mattapoisett bike trail. Everyone has a gift. What’s yours? Maybe fixing a car, painting a picture, racing a bike, singing a song, dribbling a basketball, reciting a poem, or fixing a computer. Think about it. Aha. See you have one and it’s shareable through our community treasure chest.
No matter your gift, you can join the cause and become a contributing factor. Simply decide what you are going to do and get others to sponsor you; then on Saturday, September 10, 2016, put action to that fund-raising decision. Perhaps the living treasure chest will contain tap dancing, dog walking, housecleaning, painting, carpentry, a cooking class or plumbing … Whatever the case may be, the idea is to pair these talents and services with accompanying contributions from friends, family, neighbors, or businesses who readily support the cause. Simple as can be.
Participating in the Serve-a-Thon is a great way to open our eyes to the needs around us and a very practical way to address them directly. We all have a unique gift to share. When your gift is allowed to shine for the greater good of others, it is the type of thing that uplifts and promotes all concerned. That is where things could get very interesting, for sharing our living treasures has in it the potential to transform a region, especially if it becomes an area life style.
During last year’s Serve-a-Thon, a journalism class was offered in the basement of St. Francis of Assisi Church, an individual cleaned the Mobile Loaves & Fishes vehicle, bird houses were built and sold, and a contractor labored for free at a widow’s home.
Try it yourself. It’s only for a few hours on one day. You’ll be surprised at how many ripples result. See for yourself.
Participation packets are available at the Salvation Army in New Bedford. For more information, please visit www.Lift-in-Love.org or Lift-in-Love Facebook Page or call Major BethEllen Parkhurst at 508-997-6561.
A Public Rally will be held on Saturday, July 23, 2016 at 11:00 am at the Salvation Army facility at 619 Purchase Street in New Bedford. Please join us!
By Ken Hartnett & Steven J. Bouley