My Community Matters: GRCF Staff member makes lives much richer!
December 26, 2009
After a long hiatus, I finally landed on a topic to write about. Frankly I’ve not been inspired to write for the last month - quite busy and didn’t think people would want to read my laments which were growing rather than subsiding these past few weeks!
Rena Guttrich has been a staff member of the Grand Rapids Community Foundation for more than 10 years. She works primarily with me and our Board of Trustees as our Executive Assistant but she is everywhere in the office. Always one of the first to help where needed, signing up to bring a delectable dish when we have potlucks, and making sure that everything is running smoothly.
A few years ago, she and her husband Gary learned that their son Bruce who had recently joined the Army was being sent to Iraq - early on in the war that continues to this day. Rena was understandably upset. She has appeared often on television, speaking on the radio along with being featured in articles in various publications talking about the experience of being a parent of a soldier being deployed on a dangerous mission and Operation Pillow Talk detailed below. Bruce has been sent over to Iraq for a second deployment and is stateside now but may be sent to Afghanistan in a few months. This is something that brings tears to Rena’s eyes but she keeps moving forward and making life better for those around her.
It didn’t take long before Rena took matters into her own hands when Bruce first joined the service and she and Gary became members of the West Michigan Family Support Group that has been instrumental in working and calming the fears of family members of service personnel who are gone for months. The group translates their worries and concerns into a very worthwhile effort known as “Operation Pillow Talk” that decorates and sends pillows to grateful servicemen and women stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pillows it seems are not part of the “equipment” that our service personnel receive!
This holiday season, Rena and her group also made small Christmas trees and other wonderful things for the soldiers! So while she was busy with her “day job” of taking care of every little detail at the GRCF, her passion in helping others was taking up her time “off the clock.” WOW!
It was a pleasant surprise to see her photo in today’s edition of The Grand Rapids Press (Saturday, December 26) on the front page above the fold. Rena is something else! This is the link to the article as well as the link to actual front page of the Press! Thanks for highlighting the work of a selfless and remarkable person!
feed source