Thanksgiving Turkey DriveThis Thanksgiving, Let's Make a Difference Together.
What does the word Thanksgiving mean to you? Maybe it sparks memories of spending time with loved ones, the tradition of sharing a grand feast centered around Turkey of course, or time spent outdoors as the cool air begins to settle in. For me it’s the afternoon football games and family and friends gathered around reunited from our busy lives. My sister loves the Thanksgiving Day parade and I bet there are some that spend this holiday with a family tradition of decorating for Christmas. So many different thoughts come to mind at the mere mention of the word.
But I want to propose a meaning that you may or may not have considered before. When we break the word apart, we are left with “thanks” and “giving”. The first part of the word seems to fit nicely into our perception of what Thanksgiving is all about, after all, being thankful is at the core of this holiday; however the next word, giving, may not necessarily be the first idea that pops into our head as we prepare for this special time of year. As it turns out, being thankful is the first step, but it shouldn’t end there.
Giving comes in various forms and can mean so many different things. At Summit Physical Therapy we exist to help people, it is our purpose and we find ourselves giving in this way every single day. Through helping people the entire Summit team find themselves caught up in giving of our energy, attention, time, care, thoughts, expertise, with the focus of giving value to others so they can live their life pain free once again. And in this way we hope that they are able to reciprocate the giving back to their families, friends and communities. What does this giving look like? Well it could come in many forms but without the shackles of pain to keep you from doing what you love with who you love the various forms are endless. It could be serving at a community center, soup kitchen or another community outreach program. It could mean helping to decorate at an assisted living community or even just spending time with the residents and hearing their stories of Thanksgiving.
On a larger scale I would like to introduce an idea that I had in order to help give back to our community and give to those that are less fortunate. We are starting our first annual Thanksgiving donation Turkey drive. We are going to be raising money at all of our clinics and other events in order to help feed the less fortunate in our community on Thanksgiving day. For every dollar that one of our current or past patients donates Summit Physical Therapy will match that donation and present a check to the Chattanooga Rescue Mission in order to help make sure there is plenty to eat this Thanksgiving.
Dan and I have always wished to be able to do more for the community that we grew up in. The same community that now comes to us to get out of pain and return back to their normal lives. This seems like a great way to be able to serve as many people as we can in our hometown. It’s not about what you or I can do alone but what we can do together as a “TEAM”. It is about what we can do TOGETHER. “Together” is what Thanksgiving is all about.
Happy Thanksgiving and from the bottom of our hearts we thank you for being a part of our family.
To your health,
Kevin Kostka and Dan Dotson
