Welcome to 
The Golden View
December 2024 Edition

Hillcrest Reflections in the Park
by Greg Birkett,
Steering Committee Member
​and Volunteer, 
Hillcrest Reflections in the Park

It's the 30th Anniversary of Hillcrest Family Services Reflections in the Park presented by Fidelity Bank and Trust! From Thanksgiving through January 5th, Murphy Park in Dubuque will once again be transformed into a Christmas winter wonderland, sparkling with intricate and animated light displays including the ever popular Tunnel of Lights, the Faley family sponsored 30’ Digital Christmas Tree, Memory Lane and many new and returning favorites – all with LED lighting.

This annual event has become a family tradition over the last three decades with those that visited as children now bringing their children and grandchildren. “This event is about more than holiday lights–it’s about hope”, said Hillcrest Family Services CEO Mike Fidgeon. “People visiting the park help provide crucial behavioral health services to over 7,000 individuals in our community who rely on Hillcrest Family Services.”

Your admission fee and donations directly fund life-changing therapy, counseling, and support services for those who need it most. Reflections in the Park, “A Hillcrest Lights Festival”, presented by: Fidelity Bank and Trust; is a family tradition for so many in the Tristate community. “It is awesome to see the faces of the little ones especially,” said Greg Birkett, Steering Committee Member and Volunteer for Reflections. “It puts everyone in the Holiday spirit and is an important fundraiser for Hillcrest Family Services”.

Hillcrest is blessed with approximately 500 community volunteers that put in over 3,500 hours making Reflections in the Park happen, from handling the promotions, refurbishing lights year-round, doing everything from set-up, to volunteering while the show is up and running, to taking down the displays when the show wraps up. 

Tickets for Reflections in the Park are priced at $12 per vehicle at the gate. Discounted $10 tickets are available at tri-state area Fidelity Bank and Trust locations and at Hillcrest Family Services throughout the event. Tickets make wonderful stocking stuffer gifts.

“We want to thank all of the sponsoring businesses for making this a reality for the tens of thousands of visitors each year. This year in addition to our principal sponsor, Fidelity Bank and Trust, the Diamond Jo is a platinum sponsor,” said John Bellini of Hillcrest Family Services.

​Additional details about Reflections can be obtained by calling Hillcrest at 1-563-583-7357. ​

‘Tis the Season
​ by Michael J. Lenstra

“I wish they would just call it Retailer’s Day and be done with it,” my sister lamented. “That’s what it really is.” This declaration, which pretty much summed up her feelings on the upcoming holiday season a few years ago, came just days after she told me she had a heated argument with her daughter about putting up a
Christmas tree.

“We are not even going to be home [this Christmas],” she reasoned. “We’re going to Texas. Why should we put up a tree or outside lights?”

It sounded like a typical left brain-right brain debate: logic vs. emotion. And even though, in a practical sense, my sister may have been right, she also may have been missing the point. Maybe we all are. What is supposed to be a time of religious observance, peace, and goodwill toward all has evolved for many into a period of stress and financial burden. Certainly any holiday that has as much significance to the retail industry as it does to the clergy is peculiar in itself.

My wife pretty much sums up my sister’s thoughts. “I don’t even look forward to Christmas,” she has said in the past. “It’s just so much work.”

Yes, Christmas has taken a beating in the last few years. Some department stores began refusing to use the “C” word in their advertisements for fear of offending someone, and debates rage over whether it is allowable for a municipality to display their nativity scene in a public park. And while we seem to hear more and more about jingle bells, the holiday movie season and the economic impact of Black Friday, we also seem to hear less and less about the baby born in a manger over two thousand years ago.

The dilemma is not lost on University of Iowa’s journalism professor Stephen Bloom, who once wrote the following in The Atlantic: 

“After years and years of in-your-face religion, I decided to give what has become an annual lecture, in which I urge my students not to bid strangers ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Happy Easter,’ ‘Have you gotten all your Christmas shopping done?’ or ‘Are you going to the Easter egg hunt?’ Such well-wishes are not appropriate for everyone, I tell my charges gently. A cheery ‘Happy holidays!’ will suffice. Small potatoes, I know, but did everyone have to proclaim their Christianity so loud and clear?

“Maybe it wasn't such a good idea. One gutsy, red-in-the-face student told me in no uncertain terms that for the rest of her life, she would continue offering Merry Christmas and Happy Easter tidings to strangers, no matter what I, or anyone else, said, because, ‘That's just who I am and I'm not about to change - ever!’ Score one for sticking it to the ethnic interloper.”

​Ben Franklin may have simplified it best when he said, “A good conscience is a continual Christmas,” and maybe we would serve ourselves and others best if we remembered that. So, whatever your beliefs or your reason for the season, I want to take a moment to wish you and your loved ones a peaceful and memorable one and hope that your new year is filled with good fortune.

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Features This Month!

Read about medical tips on our Health Page: Click Here

Take a look back with our pictures from "Down Memory Lane" on our Culture page: Click here

Read about all the events happening around the Tri-States: Click Here

​Get a Laugh from our Comics and Games on our Activities Page: Click Here

Bell Tower Theater Finishes Their 2024 Season with Seasonal Allergies!
by Miki Robinson, 
Operations and Marketing Manager,
​Bell Tower Theater

The Bell Tower Theater, your hometown theater, is pleased to announce the final comedy of their 22nd Season, Seasonal Allergies by Katherine DiSavino & Kevin Mead. The performance will be directed by the Bell Tower Theater’s Artistic Director Sue Riedel. 

What are the holidays without a little chaos? Julia’s life is turned upside down when her soon-to-be-divorced brother shows up unexpectedly and stays from Thanksgiving through New Year’s. Don’t miss this funny, heartwarming comedy about friends, family and holiday stresses. The cast features Bell Tower veterans Megan Frankovich, Jeff Huettman, Michael Storm and Mandy Haggerty alongside newcomer to the Bell Tower stage Benita Holmes and a longtime participant in our Free Summer Musical Program in his first adult play, Brekon FitzPatrick.

​The Bell Tower Theater is conveniently located in Fountain Park at 2728 Asbury Road in the city’s vibrant West End just minutes from both Highway 20 and the Northwest Arterial. Performances are every Thursday and Friday evening at 7:30 pm; Saturday, December 7 & 14 at 7:30 pm; Saturday, December 21 at 2 pm and every Sunday afternoon at 2 pm from December 6 to 22. The performances on December 6 & 7 are the Early Bird Special performances when tickets are just $12. Tickets for all other performances are $24. Thursdays are Girls’ Night Out; all audience members (21+) get a free glass of wine. For information and to purchase tickets call 1-563-588-3377 or visit tickets.belltowertheater.net. 

Ready to volunteer?

Have you considered what you’ll do with your spare time in the New Year? How about volunteering? There are so many ways we can step up.

AmeriCorps Seniors (americorps.gov/serve/americorps-seniors) provides opportunities to over 200,000 seniors every year to go into the community and give back. If there’s an interest, there’s likely a place that needs help.

The Foster Grandparent Program hooks up seniors and children ranging from premature babies all the way to young teenage mothers.

In the Seniors RSVP Program, seniors are matched with organizations that help others in the community. 

The Senior Companion Program pairs a volunteer with another senior who needs help with daily living activities. 

What do we seniors get out of volunteering? We gain new skills or improve the ones we already have as we share our experience. We can earn a small stipend. We can lessen our isolation and feelings of loneliness as we interact with others. And we experience better health, including mental health with a decrease in anxiety and depression.

The only eligibility requirement is that volunteers must be age 55 and older.

If you’re interested in exploring volunteering opportunities, go online to the AmeriCorps website and click on the Pathfinder. Put your state or area of interest in the search box. You’ll be shown lists of agencies that can use your volunteer help as well as the email contact and website for those agencies. 

You might end up teaching a child to read, or volunteering as an aide in a kindergarten class. You might help another senior with tasks he or she can no longer do, such as laundry or writing letters to family. You could work behind the counter at a recreation center signing out basketballs. You might sort vegetables in a food bank. The opportunities are nearly endless.

If you need inspiration, look at the National Service Reports for your state to see what others have been doing.

​© 2024 King Features Synd., Inc.

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