Page 8 - The Shores of Jupiter - August '24

Page 8, The Shores
Community Foundation Prepares For Hurricane Season

With Disaster Relief Fund

Local Nonprofit Partners Through the Community Foundation’s Disaster Relief “When it comes to disasters, our ability to be agile with
immediate recovery funds is key,” said Danita R. DeHaney,
Fund, the nonprofit organization is raising money now for
To Benefit From Proactive local communities that are most likely to be affected by president and CEO of the Community Foundation. “We take
Fundraising Efforts the flooding, wind and other impacts of these potentially our historic leadership role around emergency relief to heart
because we become a lifeline to the nonprofit partners on the
devastating and frequent storms. Emergency preparedness
and response is a core grantmaking focus for the organization. ground during a crisis. Investing in our Disaster Relief Fund
The Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin The Community Foundation has experience supporting today helps us stand ready to help our neighbors in need in
Counties announced that it is taking immediate action relief and recovery efforts for all kinds of crises. Since the stormy months ahead. With our donors, we are here to
to address the NOAA National Weather Service Climate establishing its Disaster Relief Fund in 2009 in the wake help people rebuild their lives in the short- and long-term.”
Prediction Center’s warning of “above-normal hurricane of the housing crisis and recession, the organization has To support the Disaster Relief fund at Community
activity” in the Atlantic basin this year. NOAA is predicting distributed over $6.1 million in relief grants to nonprofit Foundation, visit https://yourcommunityfoundation.org/
this year’s season has an 85 percent chance of storms above partners to address the effects of weather-related, economic funds/disaster-relief-fund/.
normal levels. and health crises.
Book Review

The Book Of Charlie: Wisdom doctor for dinner or offered Charlie volunteered and served in the U.S. Army Air
From The Remarkable Life Of anything he would like to take Force. When anesthesia was discovered as a way to ease
from their cupboard.
patients’ suffering, he was trained in its application and
A 109-Year-Old Man Charlie had a tough became one of the military’s leading anesthesiologists,
childhood. His father, whom training many others under his command.
By Nils A. Shapiro he loved dearly, was a pastor. Charlie was married more than once. Life was not always
David Von Drehle was One day, when the man ideal. In his final years he was interviewed many times by
already a noted writer—a was entering the elevator the media and asked about his philosophy of life. “I haven’t
columnist and editor at the in an office building the given it much thought,” he would reply, except to add that
Washington Post and author inexperienced operator of the his mother’s advice to “Do the right thing” covers a lot of
of four earlier successful elevator accidentally raised it situations. But among the items Charlie’s family found when
books—when he decided to and Charlie’s father slipped he was gone was a single sheet of notepaper on which he
move with his wife and four and fell many floors into the had written a list of 15 definitive rules that serve perfectly
young children to Kansas empty chute and was killed. as a guide to a successful life.
City, Mo. But he had no Charlie’s mother was left with five children and no source I will list only five here and urge you to read this book
idea when he first met the of income. to get the full terrific story … and the other 10 secrets you
elderly neighbor who lived One of Charlie’s high school buddies owned a 1917 will want to know of Charlie’s well-lived life:
in the house across the street, who said he was “washing his Model T Ford touring car with bicycle fenders, Chesterfield Savor special moments.
girlfriend’s car,” that it was a moment that would change seats and a fold-up canopy. Several of the guys decided to Cry when you need to.
his life forever. set out for California after their graduation in May 1922, Feel deeply.
For that man was Charlie White, already 102 years taking on farm work to pay their way cross country. The Take a chance.
of age—a retired physician who had been born before description of that trip includes instructions on how to drive Enjoy wonder.
the invention of radio and lived long enough to use a that Model T.
smartphone; a man born soon after the first flight of the
Wright Brothers who later watched man’s landing on the
moon, and whose own medical practice began before the
discovery of penicillin, was limited to comforting the
patient so that the body could heal itself … and continued
through the discovery of antibiotics and today’s latest
pharmaceutical and surgical advances.
But from the friendship that developed between these
two men, and which prompted this bestselling book, was the
author’s evolving awareness of the extraordinary wisdom
and positive philosophy that had enabled Charlie to survive
all that life had placed in his path those many years. He had
taken to heart the lesson his mother had taught him from an
early age: Do the right thing.
For Von Drehle, this became an opportunity to pass along
to his own children the kinds of lessons he had always hoped
he could provide for them.
The following excerpt makes it clear that everyone
fortunate enough to read this wonderful book can derive
that same benefit:
“Charlie was a man of science. As a physician, he knew
how the human body goes—and how it stops. He was the first
to say that his extraordinary life span was a fluke of genetics
and fortune. Still, as I’ve reflected on this remarkable
friend, I’ve come to see that he was more than a living
history lesson, and more than just the winner of a genetic
Powerball. He was a case study in how to thrive—not just
survive but thrive—through any span of years, short or long.
People often asked him about the secret of longevity, and
Charlie was always scrupulously honest: there’s no secret,
just luck. But if he knew no secrets to a long life, he knew
plenty about a happy life. Through tragedy and loss, poverty
and setbacks, missteps and blown chances, he maintained a
steadiness, an evenness, and a self-reliance that today might
be called resilience. He had a gift for seizing joy, grabbing
opportunities, and holding on to things that matter. And he
had an unusual knack for an even more difficult task: letting
go of all the rest.”
There were many highs and lows in a life as long as this.
And witnessing them over more than a century through Licensed and Insured
Charlie’s eyes is a remarkable experience, especially in
the words of such a gifted writer. As just a few of many,
many examples:
Dr. Charlie White’s medical career began in the depths
of the Great Depression of the early 1930s, when making
house calls was a typical way to treat patients. The situation
sometimes called for the emergency removal of a child’s
tonsils. At such and similar occasions, parents who literally
could not afford a nickel in payment instead invited the