Testimonials


Ten years ago Marc Elliot was awarded an ESA Outstanding Youth Award. Watch this video to learn how ESA impacted his life:



Thank you notes from recipiants of the supplies collected at the Virtual School Supply Drive held at the 2011 IC Convention:








"What ESA Means to Me" Essay

   ESA is for me a source of gratification. I enjoy the social interaction at our business meetings and our focused social events.  In our chapter, both these events involve various degrees of “breaking bread,” from a sweet bite and coffee to a family-style buffet supplied by our own marvelous, gifted members.  Our venues for these have ranged from our own backyards to community theatres and even mountaintops.
   Gratification comes with the learning we experience as an integral part of our meetings.  We have learned about a plethora of health and social issues, financial planning and things we can do to express our creativity with little experience or financial investment but much in the way of reward. 
   The pinnacle of instant gratification comes with our service to others.  It comes with the smile on the face of a sick child as you help him with an egg hunt or as she opens a Christmas gift that would not have been there without ESA.  It comes on the day the Dream Home winner is announced and a family shouts with glee as their dreams and hopes are fulfilled just moments after we have learned the total dollar amount, always in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, that we have helped make available to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
   Long-term gratification of the amorphous sort comes with the close bonds of friendship that grow among members, evidenced by baby showers, bridal showers, cards and notes on special occasions, hospital visits, and extended family to share both joys and sorrows and your very own cheering squad to urge you forward and celebrate your victories. It comes in more concrete forms when a soldier you have supported with cards, letters and small gifts returns safely to U.S. soil from his post in the Middle East and you are glad you gave that moral support.  It comes when someone you have mentored in ESA rises to leadership in chapter, and then state, office.
   For me, personally, the most awe-inspiring feeling of gratification comes with the knowledge that ESA’s involvement since the 1960s with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has resulted in so many saved lives and in a stream of care and research that has, and will continue to, snatch children from the grip of death and provides ongoing research, altering healthcare for generations to come.
   Perhaps it is the ultimate expression of selfishness – that “what ESA means to me” is a good feeling, a gratifying feeling, but so be it.  It is what it is!

             -- Sherry Broom, Delta Rho, TN Council



"The pinnacle of instant gratification comes with our service to others. "

- Sherry, TN. - winner of the "What ESA Means to Me" essay contest. Read her full essay below.


Let us know why you love ESA! Send your testimonial to Charlotte at Headquarters and you could see your story here in the next edition of the ESA News!