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Dear AWE Family,
Since I became this program’s director over 10 years ago, I realize I’ve written around 35 of these quarterly newsletter messages to our expanding Art With Elders family. Taking all those previous into account, I’m sure this one is to be perhaps the most challenging and potentially impactful. While I’m guessing many of you may have already heard, on Saturday, February 8, we learned of the tragic and sudden passing of our beloved friend and associate, Jason Varner.
Not only has this been a terrible shock to our system professionally, losing our incredibly talented Director of Operations, but the personal loss of someone so special weighs on our AWE family particularly profoundly. Jason was taken from us all far too soon, having just turned 50, and as someone who represents the very best of humanity, it seems unfair that we should be allowed only memorial access to his gifts and great example as our lives continue on without him.
Our fondness for Jason, we learned from his close friends and his partner Darren at his funeral service, was reciprocated by his love of our program and the manifold work he did to help make it the great success it is today. In fact, Darren shared that Jason had never worked so long in the same job before his tenure with AWE. Consequently, Darren generously asked that in-memoriam donations on his behalf be made to AWE, the program he loved so much.
We AWE staff and instructors have already met twice to both grieve and celebrate our beloved brother. We plan to gather again soon and will use that opportunity to collaborate on the creation of something special and worthy of memorializing him. Jason found great joy in gardening; one idea now in administrative pre-approval is to plant a tree in Jason’s honor on the grounds just outside the window of our art studio at Laguna Honda Hospital. A memorial fund in his name that benefits a particular senior community unable to afford ongoing art classes remains another consideration. Whatever we decide, we will share with you our unfolding plans and hope that you will share with us as we find even more meaningful ways to remember him together.
We are an organization not unfamiliar with, and certainly not keen to shy away from, loss. It was the passing of our founding Executive Director, Brent Nettle, at a fairly young age that encouraged me to step into this role. In addition, we art instructors, many of whom have been with the organization for decades, have witnessed time taking its natural toll on a fair share of our students over the years. Thankfully, however, AWE is also an organization that celebrates creativity, hope and compassion as its life-blood. Each of us, armed with these unique tools and valuable experience are especially well-suited to forge on and support each other during such difficult times.
This situation, though shocking and particularly painful, echoes the myriad other life-challenges surely awaiting us all as our life-journeys unfold. It will no doubt become, as a result of our celebrated creativity and hopeful inclinations, something that inspires us to be better, live more fully, love more deeply and continue to do work that creates joy for others, and by extension, ourselves.
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