Summer of 2026 Filled with Retirees Caring, Sharing
By VICKIE ELLIS, TVARA Valleywide President
I hope you have filled your summer so far with lots of activities, travel, and spending time with family and friends. It is hard to believe summer is coming to an end in the next month or so.
Your TVARA colleagues — and a great many of you, in many, many cases — have been very busy this quarter volunteering for projects with several nonprofit organizations throughout the Tennessee Valley.
With philanthropic funding provided to us by Bicentennial Volunteers Inc., we were able to fund seven projects.
TVARA members also volunteer their time with each of these organizations, a fundamental requirement for accepting the funding from BVI.
Penny Walker, TVARA Volunteer Coordinator, administers the volunteer program.
The projects funded this year are as follows:
- Chattanooga — Ramp project. Chapter members build ramps for handicapped individuals living in Hamilton County.
- Gallatin — Hands of Hope. Chapter members help support a small volunteer agency in Portland, Tenn., providing food, toiletries, baby products, medical supplies, and assistance with housing.
- Knoxville — Hero’s Hill Project. Chapter members aid in moving homeless veterans from the streets into permanent housing.
- Mississippi — Hope Unbridled. Support is provided for therapeutic horseback riding and equine-assisted activities for disabled riders.
- Mississippi — Mission Men. Support is provided to men being treated for addiction, including food, personal-care supplies, intake packages, bedding, and educational materials.
- Muscle Shoals — Gerald Willliams Community Garden Program. Members provide assistance to low-income families, enabling them to purchase items to plant a small vegetable garden and grow supplemental food during the summer and preserve it for the winter.
- Western Kentucky — Land Between the Lakes School Grant Program. Chapter members designed educational experiences for visiting students on field trips, including selecting schools, providing program leadership during visits, and assisting with program evaluations.
Thanks to everyone who volunteered with these and other projects.
It is important that we capture the number of volunteer hours worked by TVARA members. As you spend time on any volunteer projects, please provide your chapter president with the organization(s) and number of hours contributed.
Our two newsletter editors, Theresa Habiger and Jim Andrews, have been producing this quarterly newsletter for many years. From developing ideas to editing and correcting our grammar and typos, their activities are always behind the scenes.
However, many hours go into producing such a high-quality newsletter, and both now have decided to “retire” and move on to other fun retirement activities.
We are so grateful for all their hard work, patience with our many changes, and their dedication to this organization.
Suzan Bowman, TVARA Communications Specialist (and, like Theresa, a TVARA Valleywide Past President), assumed the responsibility of TVARA News Editor last issue. And Hillari Dowdle has joined her this issue in the role of Contributing Editor.
Hillari spent 10 years in the Communications department at TVA, where she shaped an editorial strategy for the relaunch of tva.gov, created content for departments around the organization, and wrote speeches for then Chief Executive Officer Jeff Lyash.
I hope to see many of you at our TVA-sponsored luncheon on Sept. 11 in Chattanooga.
Note in the reminder on page 1 that you can only register ONLINE this year for the luncheon. Sign up soon to reserve your spot!