I saw Dick Nason on Dec 18th and he looked very sick and frail. I asked him what had happened. He told me that he had a very rare form of soft tissue cancer that has manifested in his left leg. He has had 3 operations. Please pray for him and his family.
One of my fondest memories of Rotary is the year that Dick was the chairman of the Christmas party. Back then we invited learning disabled and handicapped children to a Christmas Party. We coordinated with their teachers who with the parents complied a list of gifts that the children wanted.
At the party, Don Lauzier led all the children in Jingle Bells and Santa (Dave Beattie) and his reindeer helper (Fran Morin- Steve's Mother) would come out and Santa would greet each child. Just having Santa shake their hand was enough for the children.
Then Norm Faucher would call each child's name to come forward and Santa would give them a bag of gifts. We always bought a few extra presents. That year we needed them because the teacher omitted 4 children. We gave them the presents that we had.
As an aside, the children were as happy for the other children who received presents and they were excited to show the toys to the Rotarians at their table.
Dick Nason contacted the teachers and they made a list for each child. Dick and his wife bought and wrapped all of the presents that night.
Dick never or rarely wore a uniform, but the next day, he put all of the gifts in large bags,wore his uniform, drove his police car onto the playground of Fairfield school with the siren wailing and the lights flashing. All of the children on that side of the school ran to the windows.
Dick came into the room where the children were and called their names. They came forward and Dick told them that these toys had fallen off Santa's sleigh and someone brought them to the police station to give them to the children.
That is what Christmas is all about.
The first Christmas Party I attended and saw all of those learning disabled and handicapped children and saw their reaction to Santa, I went home after work and hugged my wife and children and told Margo that we did not have any problems.
