Fun mixes with generous help for Oaklawn Hospice at ‘Tour of Tables’

MARSHALL –  An evening of fanciful fun and conviviality was the best way to describe the annual Tour of Tables – although the cause was a serious one.

A “Jurassic Park”-themed table won the “people’s choice” ballot as the best-decorated table during the sixth annual fund-raiser benefiting Oaklawn Hospice Services. The event was held at Schuler’s Restaurant & Pub for the second year, and drew about 150 people to 21 specially decorated tables.

This year’s top-winning table – which featured a looming Tyrannosaurus Rex and dinosaur tails on each chair – was decorated by staff from Oaklawn Hospital’s Radiology Department and sponsored by Oaklawn Chief Support and Ancillary Services Officer Sharon Boyd.

As always, the goal is to make the event fun for participants and their guests, by filling the dining area with tables decorated in various themes. Sponsored tables are decorated and set to reflect themes established by the hosts.

A silent auction was a significant feature of the evening’s fun, said Theresa Shippell of Oaklawn’s Development Department, who coordinated this year’s event. Many of the items made available during the auction were technology products, dinners and program tickets donated by area businesses, Shippell said.

Speakers during the evening’s festivities included Erin Wilson, an Oaklawn Hospice social worker; Donna Young,program director for Oaklawn Hospice; Ginger Wiliams, Oaklawn president and CEO; and Mike Beck, Oaklawn’s executive director for development. The Rev. William Cole gave the invocation.

“We’re very grateful for the support this demonstrates for the work done at Oaklawn Hospice,” Shippell said. “We’d also like to extend our sincere thanks to the management and staff at Schuler’s for their generosity and wonderful service in supporting this community event.”

“The ‘Tour of Tables’ is a wonderful expression of our community’s dedication to our programs,” said Donna Young, program director for Oaklawn Hospice. “It’s also a nice way to spend an evening together while providing funds for this excellent service to patients and their families, who face an incredible need at this time in their lives.

“Hospice encompasses all that makes us human – love, hope, compassion and caring. A hospice nurse once told me that the staff had the luckiest job in the world because they ‘worked amongst angels,’” Young said.

The musical group JimJam – comprising Jim Oliver and Jim Dyer – provided entertainment throughout the evening.

Funds raised go directly to support Oaklawn Hospice’s comprehensive healthcare program, which works to meet the physical, emotional, spiritual and social needs of persons with life-limiting conditions and their families.

Wilson chairs the Tour of Tables steering committee. Other committee members are Sue Damron, Schuler’s president and managing partner; Sara Andrews, Oaklawn’s services coordinator; Theresa Dawson, Oaklawn’s chief nursing officer; Bonnie Edwards, Oaklawn’s coordinator of nursing administration and ancillary services; Susie DeBack, Schuler’s sales and marketing manager; as well as Young, Beck, Boyd and Shippell.

Major sponsors and donors to this year’s Tour of Tables included Gregg Beeg, Dixie Gastola, Binder Park Zoo, Best Buy, Chemical Bank, Scott and Theresa Dawson, FireKeepers Casino Hotel, Mike and Alicia Beck, the Marshall Historical Society, the Medalist Golf Course, Park’s Drug Store, Radiology Consultants PLC, Jim and Claudette Robey, Schuler’s Restaurant & Pub, Seneca Medical and Brent and Dr. Ginger Williams.