01/29/2025
I am sharing this article from the Decatur Daily that highlights the volunteering of Savann and Jerry Beason who are part of our Sheffield Remembers Family === - Savann is a big Elvis Fan and also a talented singer herself as we have experienced each year. Her appearance and beautiful fashion sense has given her the nickname Elizabeth Taylor by some.
They are proofing that we all can do something to make the world a better - even if for just one person or one person at a time. They are very active in their church and are not just listening to God's Word being taught but following God's command of Love One Another --- They also host the Quilts of Valor for Veterans at their home - we were there this weekend and heard them talk about their experiences at the Salvation Army They also provided most of the food for this event too.
I am going to post the full article in the comments but will highlight some of Savann's comments in it here.
Dozens of people in Decatur sheltered in the city’s two warming shelters — at the Salvation Army and Hands Across Decatur — early this week amid frigid temperatures expected to ease this weekend. Volunteers Savann Beason and her husband, Jerry, a Vietnam veteran, prepare hot meals for those in need at the Salvation Army warming center. ‘It’s a calling’: Volunteers staff warming shelters amid frigid temps
Tuesday morning, volunteers peeled potatoes in a small kitchen attached to the Salvation Army’s gymnasium. Underneath basketball hoops branded with the charity organization’s logo, around 20 people rested on mattresses lining either side of the gymnasium wall (separated by gender) or sat in folding chairs arranged around plastic tables in the center of the space. Off the warm gym branched the Salvation Army’s old shelter, currently in disrepair, and a church. “I wish we could keep it open seven days a week, 24 hours a day,” Savann Beason, a volunteer, said. “I love it here. My whole family volunteers here. It’s a calling that we all have as volunteers, I think, to help those in need. “Everyone here is not drug addicted, alcoholics. There are people here that are just down on their luck — no jobs, no work — and this is a wonderful place to come to get help.” Beason said the shelter could use many more volunteers. She said everyone at the shelter, volunteers and residents alike, pitches in and helps each other. Aside from warmth and food, volunteers try to help in other ways, too. Beason recalled “one poor fellow” with Huntington’s disease — an illness which causes nerve cells in the brain to gradually decay — who couldn’t speak and so couldn’t use a phone to ask for help. He had no driver’s license or identification, she said, and so volunteers helped him acquire an ID and get medical help at a free clinic. “We found him in a tent with holes in it,” Beason said. “And he can’t walk. But he’s so nice. Since he’s been here, he just has a different look on his face, and he’s happy and he’s smiling. It’s just a blessing to see people become a better person by being here. And that’s what we try to do.” In addition to chores like cooking and laundry, Beason, a retired hairdresser, said she’s also helped cut hair. She wishes city officials would help with efforts to keep the shelter open. “If they were here, they would see (the need),” Beason said. “If you’d just hang around here two days, you would learn a lot and see a lot.”
(Jerry told us this weekend about a family with little children that had come to the shelter - they weren't just lazy people looking to being taken care of - due to circumstances against them they needed warmth and help that week)
I hope you take the time to read the full article in the comments and be inspired to find your way to make the world better.
