Saturday morning, a week and a half before Christmas.  It will be a busy weekend.  Today, I am supposed to go to see Santa at our local fire station, go to a family holiday party, and go to a party celebrating a friends election.  Tomorrow, I am supposed to go to Church, go to a memorial for my mother who died during Hurricane Sandy, and host a radio show with my daughter.  Yet as Social Media Manager for CHC, I have other things that need to be done.  I need to keep an eye on our community online, stay in contact with our leadership and join in on a conference call later today.

Yesterday, there was a meeting about how our behavioral health staff and our school based health center staff would be helping out after the shooting in Sandy Hook.  We went over records to see who we know in the area that may need a little extra help.  We talked about who would be on-call and we talked about how we support one another.  We worked on messages that need to be gotten out, especially about Talking with children about the recent school shooting in Sandy Hook,

At times, one member of staff or another would step out of the room in tears.  Besides being staff of a health care organization, we are also parents and people of Connecticut.  We are all feeling the pain of the past 24 hours.  Other members of staff comforted those who were grieving.  That is what we do at CHC.

Last night, a friend and co-worker posted on Facebook, “So very sad right now. Feeling the physical and emotional hurt of this tragedy tonight.”  I think we’re all feeling that right now.  Another friend posted a quote from Mr. Rogers,

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.

So, I’m looking for the helpers, I am comforted to realize that I work with so many caring people, wonderful people, helpers.