50+ Lifestyles

Adventures in Caring

By Mary Huebbe
Marketing Director
Ridgecrest Village

A New Year with new adventures, some adventures end just so others can begin. I would like to tell you a story about a very special person at Ridgecrest Village that is starting a new adventure in her life, but the story is about the adventure she is ending. I hope you enjoy the story.

Martha White has been a volunteer at Ridgecrest for 20+ years. She is the wife of Pastor George White of St. John’s United Methodist Church. At the time Christine Ittenbach was the Volunteer Director here, she was also a member of St. John’s. Christine read an article from the Guidepost Magazine about Karen Fox who lived in Santa Barbara, California, and is the founder of Adventures in Caring, the Raggedy Ann ministry. Karen was told her cancer had returned, and shewas feeling anxious. While waiting in the Dr.’s office she saw a picture of a Raggedy Ann doll in a magazine. That picture made her remember how as a child she would hug her doll when she was sad or upset. At that point she felt a very strong nudge that she should dress as a Raggedy Ann and visit the sick, listen to their stories and try to lift their spirits. She discussed her feeling with her doctor, and he helped her get the program started. The Adventures in Caring Foundation (ACF) was started!

After Christine read that article she felt a nudge as well. The nudge was to have a Raggedy Ann volunteer at Ridgecrest to visit our residents in Crest’s health care center. Christine applied to the program but received a letter back stating that we were too small of a facility. Christine never gave up on that thought, and in 1996 she went to a National Volunteer Conference in San Francisco. Much to her surprise and delight, Karen Fox and her husband, Simon were there with an exhibit of their program. After she visited with them and told them how much she wanted a Raggedy Ann
volunteer for our facility they told her to reapply. She did, and this time Ridgecrest was accepted.

Finally after receiving all of the information she needed from ACF, the Service League and administrative team at Ridgecrest Village, Christine had to find the perfect person to be Raggedy Ann. While she was visiting with Martha and
discussing the program with her as well as asking her (as a Pastor’s wife) to assist in finding that special person, it became apparent to both of them that it needed to be someone very spiritual. Christine wanted it to be someone like thepeople that do spiritual care at the hospitals. As they were talking, Martha just looked at Christine and said, “I think I might be interested in doing it!”

Everything was starting to come together. They had the perfect volunteer who had spiritual qualities and the sense of fun and adventure that was needed to be a Raggedy Ann volunteer. Ridgecrest Village’s service league paid for Martha’s travel expenses to Santa Barbara and for her training. After four days of training, she was given a RaggedyAnn costume and doll. Martha became Ridgecrest’s Raggedy Ann. Martha was very dedicated for 20 years to her volunteer visits; visiting residents in the Health Care facility, as well as anyone else she passed on her way. She brought a lot of love and cheer to the people at Ridgecrest Village.

We are sorry to say that this was her final year, but Martha is going off to new adventures in her life. Pastor George is now retired, and they are enjoying time together and continuing their life of caring for each other. On behalf of Ridgecrest Village, as well as all our Residents whose lives she has touched, we want to say Thank You and we pray you are blessed with many more years of fun and adventure!

Mary Huebbe is the marketing director for Ridgecrest Village in Davenport, Iowa. For more information about Ridgecrest Village, contact Mary at (563) 391-3430 or mhuebbe@RidgecrestVillage.org.

Article co-contributor: Christine Ittenbach, former Volunteer Director at Ridgecrest