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Labor Day: Make it a labor of love

(Updated: Thursday, September 02, 2010, 12:00 AM)

This weekend Americans all over this wonderful land of opportunity will take time away from the daily grind to spend time relaxing.

The national holiday known as Labor Day will be celebrated with parades and picnics as workers honor the many contributions of organized labor and the trade unions.

Yes, to be sure there have been abuses and there have been scalawags who have usurped the honest and noble calling that most union leaders exhibit in their dealings with management and corporate America.

But we celebrate the concepts and realities of the 40-hour work week, medical benefits, pension plans, job security, job safety, compulsory education for children, child labor laws and the end of sweat shops.

My father was a member of the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks. He would laugh with the others about "featherbedders and bed-wetters," but he always reminded his sons that the unions helped protect the interests of the working man against some tyrants of industry.

As we celebrate this holiday from our labors, we will have an opportunity to relax and celebrate life in a fun way that will raise money for cancer research and scholarships for area students.

The third Dannypalooza, to be held Sunday at Oakhurst Community Center, is a celebration stemming from the hearts of the Zabicki family who lost their youngest son, Danny, to a rare form of cancer.

The Zabickis have been longtime residents, business owners and generous supporters of many causes in the time they've lived here in our small part of the globe.

We prayed and prayed with them through Danny's ordeal, and we wept with them when he slipped away to be with his maker two years ago.

It is so very fitting that this year's Dannypalooza falls on the Labor Day holiday weekend. There's a wonderful old hymn that's sung at many a funeral and memorial service that speaks to rest for those who labor. The lyrics of the first stanza are: "For all the saints who from their labors rest, Who Thee by faith before the world confess, Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest, Alleluia! Alleluia!"

Danny is at rest from his labors, but his name and his spirit live on and inspire. He serves as a catalyst for many in the community to take time from their busy schedules to put on such an event.

The generous community folks who will donate items and the many others who will buy raffle tickets and bid on the silent-auction items will all be involved in this endeavor.

This is one of those events that helps bind a community together. It shows that we have a streak of Mayberry in our little spot at highways 41 and 49.

I have often shared with folks that one of the many blessings of living in a small town is that it's a place where it's easy to raise many dollars in a short time for a great cause.

The impact of the charitable donations collected at Dannypalooza will live beyond most of our lives. People ahead of most of us helped eradicate polio from most spots on Earth, and it won't be long before polio is gone for good. Most American children haven't a clue what polio is or was.

When cancer is eradicated -- and it will be at some point -- those who follow us will be free from the effects of that disease, as we are from the crippling effects of polio. It's their labor and our dollars that need to come together.

Students who receive scholarship money will be able to study and become part of an informed, enlightened citizenry.

We trust that they will remember that they once needed a helping hand and that they will give of their labors to help others.

It is so fitting to tie these two events together in Eastern Madera County.

While the rest of the nation takes time from their labors to relax and celebrate a holiday at a resort or a campground, people in Oakhurst will take a break from their daily labors to do another kind of labor.

A labor of love.