{"id":4294,"date":"2010-10-18T14:42:47","date_gmt":"2010-10-18T18:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=4294"},"modified":"2014-06-02T14:53:24","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T18:53:24","slug":"graceful-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2010\/10\/18\/graceful-giving\/","title":{"rendered":"Graceful Giving"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"m_gracefulgiving\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For Lynda Hamilton, retirement has turned out to be less an ending than a chance to start anew.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am thoroughly enjoying my retirement,\u201d said Hamilton, who taught University classes in business law and international trade. \u201cWhen you close that door on what you\u2019ve done in the past and then a whole new life opens up, you think, \u2018Oh, this is just marvelous!\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI have four animals, two of which I adopted from the Humane Society,\u201d said Hamilton, \u201cmy little beagle, Violet; Baby Jack, my orange cat \u2013 he was tiny when he came home and he is enormous now; and two other little cats who showed up in my azaleas. You know how people will drop cats off at farmhouses.\u201d And then there\u2019s her second in command of the farmyard, Sophie the border collie. \u201cSophie and I preside over the four adoptees, a rooster named Romeo, and a tiny flock of chickens that we just love,\u201d she said. \u201cI fear I have more eggs than I have friends!\u201d <\/p>\n

That\u2019s a lot of eggs, because Hamilton has no lack of friends or interests, which range from traveling to studying orchids to economic development to community service.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoy what little bit I do with the Humane Society,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t do as much as I\u2019d like, but I am active with it. I feel such satisfaction that some animals are saved. You feel so horrified at the condition you find some animals, but on the other hand you know that you can work toward spaying and neutering and finding homes for a lot of abandoned dogs and cats.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

She is also active in helping to improve the lot of her fellow humans. \u201cI belong to Altrusa, a service organization here in Statesboro that raises funds so we can give money and otherwise support different local organizations that we think do wonderful work,\u201d said Hamilton. \u201cThe projects are serious and we really do raise a lot of money. I think Altrusa is a lovely blend of getting together with friends, enjoying them, and then doing something worthwhile for the community.\n<\/p>\n

“I am thoroughly enjoying my retirement. When you close that door on what you\u2019ve done in the past, a whole new life opens up.” – Lynda Hamilton<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cSomething that I think I\u2019m as proud of as anything in Statesboro \u2013 and all I do is give a little money and some magazines \u2013 is the Boys and Girls Club,\u201d she said. \u201cI just can\u2019t get over this beautiful facility where young folks are encouraged to take pride in themselves, meet the public well, and study hard.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Hamilton has always enjoyed travel. When she was teaching, she made time to study the local cultures, flora and fauna, but most often was engaged in economic development projects for local exporters. Now she combines her appreciation of orchids with that of travel, taking recent trips to China, Ecuador and Newfoundland. She\u2019s planning her fourth journey to Singapore to the International Orchid Conference next year, she said.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since I was a little girl I thought orchids were gorgeous, and as I got to be an adult I tried to do a little bit with them,\u201d Hamilton said. \u201cWhen I was named director of Georgia Southern\u2019s Center for International Business Education, a friend of mine, Patricia Saseen, gave me a pot with great sprays of little yellow orchids called Oncidiums or \u2018dancing ladies\u2019 and I just loved them. She said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you go to the orchid society meeting with me one night?\u2019 I did that and before I knew it, I had orchids in every window sill. It quickly got out of hand.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Soon thereafter, Hamilton\u2019s late husband, Phillips, bought her a hobby greenhouse for the growing collection. \u201cNow, whenever I go somewhere, it is usually a place where I can see orchids in their micro-environments. Orchids are the main thing that drives my international traveling. If someone has the phrase \u2018orchid tour\u2019 in their information, I like to say, \u2018Put me down!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Human or Beast, Those in Need Find Compassion from Retired Professor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-4294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-fall-2010"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}