By PAMELA JOHNSON
Contributing Writer
A candy cane-striped stocking hanging from the front door means “a labor of love.”
That’s what John and Geneva Morgan said as they pointed to the Christmas decoration hanging from their door in the middle of January.
“Some people may say take it down, but it will stay up year-round,” said Geneva Morgan. “It is a gift from Caswell Center in Kinston. It signifies life with meaning.”
Volunteering for agencies throughout Beaufort County like the Salvation Army, Beaufort County Mental Health Association, the Ascera Hospice Board and the Washington Housing Authority has been a way of life for the Morgans for more than 40 years.
Keeping minutes at board meetings, securing bell-ringers at Christmas, stocking the food pantry and supplying the needy with gently used clothes — these are all duties John Morgan fulfilled as the volunteer secretary for The Salvation Army Advisory Board for more than 20 years.
“It’s about holding on to an interest in these things, getting help for people who need it,” said John Morgan, explaining that serving a need is why he and his wife have volunteered for more than 40 years.
Monitoring finances, preparing agendas, making deposits and mailing out more than 150 brochures to churches, businesses and organizations to garner support for Operation Santa are also examples of his selflessness acting as administrator and treasurer of the Beaufort County Mental Health Association.
Assessing finance, administrative and staff reports were also part of his duties while serving on the housing authority board.
“We didn’t do it for money, prestige or recreation. We did it out of love — to help someone,” said Geneva Morgan.
Graduating from the first nurse practitioner course offered at East Carolina University, she worked for Dr. Dave Tayloe for more than 40 years as a pediatric nurse.
Nursing may have been her first love, but her love and dedication to help the mentally ill grew as she underwent three months of nursing training at Dorothea Dix Hospital in Raleigh.
Seeing a need and trying to fill that need is what led her to become the chairwoman of the local Operation Santa for more than 40 years.
Providing Christmas gifts for the developmental centers, group homes, Caswell Center, and Cherry Hospital in Goldsboro, through Operation Santa is how she illustrates acts of kindness.
Around Christmas, drop-off points for Operation Santa are located throughout Beaufort County.
Wants-and-needs lists are also distributed to churches, organizations and businesses.
Those organizations donate items on the lists, which are then distributed locally.
“By the time we receive from different distribution points, we touch more than 2,000 lives directly and indirectly,” John Morgan said.
Coming from poor beginnings during the Great Depression, the Morgans stress giving back to community.
While John Morgan maintains a seat on the Ascera Hospice advisory board, he has retired from BCMH and the Salvation Armory advisory board and resigned from Washington Housing Authority.
“I’m not ready for the end of life, we have a lot more living to do,“ Geneva Morgan said.