On my first day of chemotherapy my precious friend Jean Baccuss came to sit with me. My brother Gary was there and my father as well who took turns sitting with me. Miss Jean stayed the entire time. She was my seventh grade science teacher. With this being my first day of treatment I was not truly prepared for the lenght of time I would be there which was about five hours. Consequently, a few hours into treatment I began to get hungry. I casually mentioned it and Miss Jean said the Cancer Center provided snacks when she was there having treatment herself.
The volunteers at the Montgomery Cancer Center are great and they take good care of the patients as well as helping the staff. They come around often so the next time one came around I asked her if I could have a snack. She brought me some saltine crackers and warned me they might be stale. Miss Jean was surprised and asked what happneed to the graham crackers she had received. The volunteer explained that all the snacks are donated often by the volunteers themselves. At that time they did not have any snacks. Now they have snack and drink machines in the lobby, but that can get expensive. Many people receiving treatment could not afford to use the vending machines even once let alone each time they receive treatment.
This started a conversation between myself, Miss Jean the volunteer and my brother Gary. We learned that the volunteers used their own money to purchase snacks. We thought it was great the volunteers would do that for people, but really didn't think much more about it except for the fact I was hungry. Then someone else asked for a snack. He couldn't have one either because all they had were the stale Saltines. The more Gary and I talked about this the more we knew we had to figure out how to help with this. We finally just looked at each other and said, "there is something we can do about this." Other than our family donating which we immediately started doing we were not sure what we could do, but we knew we were going to do something.
I contacted my friend Sheila Hinds the Preschool Director at First Baptist Church and we talked about the snacks. Sheila immediately went into action as well. She created a bright yellow box for Sharon's Snacks. The funny part is many people knew I was getting treatment and they mistakenly thought the snacks were for me and wondered why I needed snacks. That led to us explaining they were somewhat for me because I enjoy them when I am getting treatment and get hunrgy, but primarily for everyone at the Cancer Center.
Shortly after snacks began coming in to be donated to the Cancer Center someone mentioned what a ministry this was. That is when the idea of Sharon's Snack Ministry came into full perscpective.
This began shortly after my first treatment in May 2011 and still continues to this day. It warms my heart every time I'm having treatment and I see the basket FULL of treats being brought around by the volunteers and the child like excitment on the faces of the patients as they pick their treats. Snacks and money for snacks have come from as far away as Michigan and South Carolina from my friend Dawn and my cousin Kathy. However, most of the snacks have been donated by people at my church, particularly the preschool teachers. The yellow box for Sharon's Snack Ministry is usually full each Sunday. I cannot express how much I appreciate people donating to this ministry effort. It has been such a blessing to me to do this for the patients and to see the excitment of the staff and volunteers at the Cancer Center when we bring the donations in. They too know how much it means to patients and enjoy being able to provide the snacks to those in treatment and bless them in this small way.
If you live in Montgomery or in this area please consider doanting snacks for the Montgomery Cancer Center (on Carmichael Road). We cannot use homemade snacks because they have to be very careful about what they provide. What we donate is many kinds of individually packaged snacks. The most popular items are Fruit Snacks by Welch's, peanuts, trail mix, pretzels, and chips of various kinds. All of these can be found at Costco and Sam's for really good prices but also at Walmart, Publix and Super Target. If you do not live in this area consider checking with cancer treatment centers in your area to see if they too can use snack donations. I can promise you the rewards far outweigh any expense.
