Homeland Resident Nancy VanKirk: Volunteering and Encouraging Others
In the early 2000s, Nancy VanKirk’s mother and stepfather lived at Homeland Center. From the attentive care they received, VanKirk knew that Homeland would be her home when the time came that she would need care.
“It’s a very friendly, homey atmosphere,” she said. “There’s no place quite like it.”
The time came in early 2022 when Nancy moved into a personal care suite. Since then, she has become a fixture in Homeland’s gift shop, devoting her Friday mornings to tending to the residents and visitors who need a snack, a gift, or a toiletry item.
Nancy grew up in Harrisburg’s North Allison Hill, the daughter of a salesman and a homemaker. At age 16, Nancy was sitting around a campfire while attending church camp when she suddenly felt a calling to serve in a Christian capacity. She wasn’t sure what that could be, but she thought being a minister’s wife would be marvelous.
The pastor’s wife of her church didn’t try to dissuade her but said, “Nancy, it’s no bed of roses.”
Nancy had already met Don VanKirk as a teenager in the same neighborhood. They were in and out of each other’s lives for seven years, until one day, the phone rang, “and there was Don VanKirk.”
They married in 1954. Back then, he was a printer’s apprentice. About a year into the marriage, they attended a camp meeting at Mt. Gretna when he felt the calling into the ministry.
“I was elated,” Nancy said. Don VanKirk graduated from United Theological Seminary in western Ohio, and for the next 40 years, the VanKirks and their son and daughter lived in 10 different places, mostly in central Pennsylvania. They went where the United Methodist Church assigned them.
“I always was very much involved in whatever needed to be done,” she said. “I was there to do it.”
Don VanKirk died in 2006, and Nancy moved into a retirement home. She kept busy volunteering, including 20 years on the board of the Neighborhood Center of the United Methodist Church, which provides community services in Harrisburg.
When health challenges complicated her ability to stand, Nancy knew it was time to come to Homeland. She appreciated the stability in staffing and the leadership that ensured quality care.
Before long, Nancy noticed no one was operating the Homeland gift shop on Fridays. Ever ready to pitch in, she offered to volunteer. She picked up quickly on the routine and applied her 10 years of experience as an independent contractor displaying home interiors and gifts for home shows.
“I’m a people person,” she said. “Plus, it was easy for me to keep stock in place and to realize that whatever we had for sale needed to be on the shelves where people could see it and buy it.”
The Homeland gift shop offers practical items and little delights. Tastykakes and snacks are sold at bargain prices. Residents can find the toiletries they need. Visiting families can pick up coloring books and puzzles to occupy the children. Anyone looking for a gift can find scarves, hand-crocheted throws, jewelry, and cards.
In the gift shop, connected to the Homeland Diner, Nancy deftly manages an array of tasks — stocking the ice cream freezer, breaking down small boxes, making sales, and tracking residents’ accounts.
“I enjoy it,” she said, adding that she likes being helpful. “I’m an encourager at heart. That’s sort of my goal in life.”
Homeland, she adds, “is a very good place to live. I expect to live the rest of my life where I am.”
Homeland Center (www.homelandcenter.org) offers levels of care including personal care, memory care, skilled nursing and rehabilitation. Homeland’s outreach program, Homeland at Home provides hospice, palliative care, home care, and home health to serve the diverse and changing needs of families throughout central Pennsylvania. For more information or to arrange a tour, please call 717-221-7900.
