By BETH SHAHA
News aRound the Hill
If you've voted in municipal, county, state or federal elections in
Round Hill, chances are, you've run into Donna Gicker at the polls.
A Round Hill resident for 23 years, Gicker has served as a precinct
worker for eight years—since George Bush’s first election.
Gicker used to work campaigns, but found that role too intense and
emotional. She started working the polls because she felt it was her
civic duty to stay involved.
“Our right to vote is fundamental to our way of life,” Gicker said.
“When I think of our fathers, grandfathers, and great grandfathers
fighting to preserve our rights, I believe that as a country we need to
take voting a lot more seriously.”
This November, Gicker will serve as the assistant precinct chief. For
many of the past few elections, she was the chief. The chief and
assistant chief are required to attend mandatory trainings before each
election. There are other ongoing general trainings for election
workers. Changing rules and laws make a refresher course necessary.
On the day before the elections, Gicker goes to the polling place ahead
of time to set up the room. The day of elections, she arrives at 5 a.m.
to do the rest of the set-up, including getting the machines up and
running, posting information signs on the walls, swearing the workers in
and doing paperwork. The polls open up at 6 a.m., and there is always a
line. Then, all day, she performs general duties: supervising and
handling special needs.
If she could change one thing about the polling process, it would be
encouraging more people to vote. “Percentages are so low; we rarely get
over 50 percent turnout,” she said. “We have a privilege to vote, yet
people don’t see the importance—so they simply don’t show up.”
Despite her frustration on turnout, Gicker works the polls each year
because she feels “it is my civic duty, my part in the process.”
She also wants to be an example to her children—to encourage them to be
involved in their community. For their 18th birthday, she takes her kids
down to register to vote. She feels it helps them understand the
importance of it and helps them know it is part of who they are.
And on a lighter note, Gicker also enjoys seeing all of her neighbors at
the polls, meeting new people, and putting new names with faces.
Loudoun County still needs more than 1,000 workers countywide for this
November's elections. Training is provided in October, and the pay is
$100 a day with an option to work a half day. To get involved, call the
Electoral Board.
This November, Gicker advises, “Get out to vote, take it seriously,
respect the process and be patient with the procedures. Have your
driver’s license available and be sure you go the right polling
location!”
Be sure to say "Hello." |
By MARK CARREIRO and ANGELA DEANE
News aRound the Hill
In the classic movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” George Bailey’s guardian
angel Clarence says: “Strange isn’t it: How each man’s life touches so
many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t
he?”
We all make a difference in the world. The way we live our
lives—choosing to live selflessly or selfishly—affects the quality of
life of everyone around us.
Two Round Hill residents, Cindy and Pat Horan, embody the idea of
service to others.
The Horans, who moved to Round Hill about four years ago, have worked in
service industries for many years; she is a flight attendant, and he is
the general manager of Magnolias at The Mill in Purcellville.
Friends and neighbors know all about their generous natures. When asked
for help—with a fallen tree or home-improvement job, volunteering for
the board of the RHVFD, or baby-sitting in a pinch—the Horans always
seem to come through.
Small opportunities to help people surround us daily, but it is choosing
those rare, great, opportunities to help that really define a person’s
character.
Recently Cindy Horan had one of those defining moments when she learned
of another flight attendant, Eric Hodgson, who needed a kidney
transplant. He was in bad shape and had been on dialysis for eight
years. Horan volunteered to donate one of her kidneys—despite the risk,
the discomfort, the disruption of her life, and the concerns of her
family and friends.
Even though she knew it wasn’t going to be easy, Horan decided it was
the right thing to do, and while her friends were worried, they were not
surprised.
“Cindy came to my aid in the most extreme selfless act I have ever
witnessed,” said Hodgson. “She gave me a piece of herself to keep me
alive.”
The process took three months. Test after test was done, most of which
in New York, where the operation took place. Horan endured the poking
and prodding, the traveling, and the time away from her loved ones.
Before the June operation she told friends that this was something she
wanted to do in her life and that she hoped that someone would be just
as good to her if she needed something.
In the end, the operation was a complete success. Hodgson is now healthy
and, in September, he celebrated his 40th birthday.
For her part, Horan is back to her normal life of buying stuffed animals
for her disgruntled young airline passengers, making excuses to get her
hair done because her stylist is a single mom, and generally just being
a good friend and neighbor.
“My mother and father used to tell me that my guardian angel was
invisible,” Hodgson said. “Not so. I can see her any time I want, and
her name is Cindy Horan.” |
