Natrona County Meals on Wheels announced that, due to COVID-19, they are not holding their annual Bubbles, Baubles, and Beans fundraiser this year.
“Because of COVID, we weren’t comfortable with having the event,” said Jamie Loveall, the Executive Director of Natrona County Meals on Wheels. “We didn’t feel like we could do it in a safe enough matter, so we just decided it was better if we just cancelled the event this year.”
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However, Meals on Wheels is still offering their annual ‘Pot of Beans’ raffle, it will just take place online this year.
He did it because he loved it. That was what every one of Elmer Hoke’s Meals on Wheels ‘co-workers’ said of the man, days after he passed away at the age of 95.
Hoke had been a fixture of Natrona County Meals on Wheels for more than 20 years. Many people begin volunteering for organizations like Meals on Wheels after retirement, simply because they want something to do. But, for Elmer Hoke, it was something much more than just “a way to pass the time.” That’s why, for the majority of his 20 years at Meals on Wheels, he drove every single day, Monday through Friday.
She had a secret. And it was a secret that was going to change lives. It was going to impact her job and her community, and it was going to remind her that, at the end of the day, people really
are good. 2020 has, in many cases, shown us the worst of humanity. So it would be easy to forget about the best of it. But when Jamie Loveall, Executive Director of the Natrona County Meals on Wheels opened that email in early December, she was quickly reminded of the good in people…even if she was a little skeptical at first.
“I thought ‘yeah right,’” said Loveall.
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The email turned out to be from a representative working for billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, who is an author and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. According to NPR, Scott, who is worth an estimated $55.1 billion, announced this week that her organization has given away $4 billion over the last four months to charitable organizations in all 50 states and territories.
After receiving a second email, Loveall decided to make the call and her apprehension quickly faded.
“I did some research on MacKenzie Scott and saw that she’s a huge philanthropist, and found the company that was calling me was legitimate, and it went from there.”