An understanding of our connection to and appreciation for one another in community, whether in a large city, a suburban area or in rural locations, is behind Wren's focus on volunteer work.
Over the years, she has volunteered for many different organizations. When only 5 years old, she sold 100-200 boxes of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts door-to-door each day for weeks with her Mother. They sold the doughnuts for $2/box to raise money for The Friends of Children in Vietnam during the Vietnam War (it was 25 years before she could take another bite of a K.K. doughnut again!). The Friends of Children were also behind some of the first overseas adoption programs ever orchestrated in the United States, and Wren remembers being there at the airport to greet the first baby to come off the plane.
Many other volunteer opportunities came up in Wren's life. Some include: Volunteering to work with troubled adolecent girls at the Hillside Childrens Home in Atlanta, Georgia. She taught makeup applications, dance, personal hygiene, and generally worked to help the girls build higher self-esteem and confidence from within.
While living in Manhattan, New York in the mid-eighties, Wren volunteered twice a week to work with pre-school deaf children in the "vibrational" technique of communicating (as opposed to signing only), encouraging youngsters to use their voices and actually speak, as well as read lips. This, she found, not only quite interesting, but very rewarding. The children were always happy and vibrant with enthusiasm each day.
Wren is a member of the Maple City Lions Club, who's mission is to provide eyeglasses and hearing aids to those in need. The Lion's also sponsor a stretch of highway in Hornell, NY, and work to keep it litter free. The Lions also sponsor an annual picnic for the Compeer Program. The Compeer Program places people under medical care for emotional and/or psychological challenges with volunteer "friends" so that they may enjoy some healthy social time together each week.
Wren volunteers her time nurturing The Kiva Connection, dedicated to "Nature, Art and a Healthier You". Through this organization she has opportunities to teach youth (ages 2 to 24 or so) about the lives, needs and special gifts of various farm animals, such as goats, donkeys, chickens, ducks and horses, as well as offer them nature hikes through fields, along pond edges, streams and through forests. She is knowledgable about various natural building priciples and methods and how to utilize the natural resources of the land for shelter and to meet other human needs. She shares this knowledged earned by experience with visiting conservation students to the Kiva Connection retreat facility.
Wren has joined several organizations in the support of artists and their needs for promotion, materials, outlets for expression and exposure of their work, founding a fledgling group of artists in western New York, called "The Birds", and holding a silent auction of only local area artists original works of art for a fundraiser for The Kiva Connection. She has worked closely with the Hornell Area Art's Council, in Hornell, New York, and is a member of The Alliance of New York State Art's Organizations.
Wren and The Kiva Connection helped support the rebuilding of a historical bandstand within the village of Canisteo, with both donated funds, and her own carpentry skills with a hammer and a handsaw!
Obviously, volunteering comes naturally to Wren and she hopes it will to many others, too, she says "because it's so vitally important to our success as human beings living in this universe. Someone very wise once said (anonymous) 'we survive together, or not at all', and I think that's true!"
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| Ellen Oaks volunteers with her music! |
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