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by Suzi Woodruff Lacey –
LT. COLONEL DOUG O’BRIEN presents Hope Brigade Legacy Club member Jacqueline Cook with a certificate of appreciation. |
When The Salvation Army touches a life lost in darkness of despair, hope is often the first ray of light. Restoring hope is also the mission of the Hope Brigade Legacy Club, an honored group of donors who has included The Salvation Army in their estate plans.
Hope Brigade Legacy Club members and other North County donors were honored recently at a special luncheon at El Camino Real Country Club in Oceanside, Calif.
The newest Legacy Club members were presented with a certificate of appreciation for leaving a legacy to the Army, a legacy to transform lives through a gift annuity or a bequest.
Keynote speaker Marilyn Joy Shepard highlighted the Army’s emergency and disaster response by sharing the story of her escape from the World Trade Center Tower II on September 11, 2001. The retired teacher/financial planner made her way down the stairwell 63 floors, when she (and some older ladies she was assisting) first encountered firefighters. The firefighters explained that the women had actually gone three floors below street level, and guided them back up. The firefighters then headed up into the smoke-filled building to rescue others. Shepard wonders if those firefighters were killed when the building collapsed.
Perhaps they made it out and were ministered to by The Salvation Army at Ground Zero.
“I had chills from listening to the speaker,” commented Legacy Club member Jacqueline Cook. “Her story gave new meaning to The Salvation Army’s emergency response efforts and the risk they also take in helping others during a disaster.”