Marian Millaway, age 13, was looking forward to another summer at Ocean Isle with her grandparents. But her father had another plan for her: “You need to do something meaningful this summer.”

So she spent six to seven hours a day assisting, comforting, and cheering up youngsters with cerebral palsy and spina bifida as a volunteer aide at the Children’s Center for the Physically Handicapped.  And she was hooked. “I loved those children.” Her father, who died of cancer when she was 19, would be astonished at how that summer launched a bright, energetic adolescent onto a path of giving to the community.

Marian became Marian Douglas when she fell in love and married Jim while still in college.  Finding causes and organizations she was passionate about, Marian blazed a trail as a fundraiser and found herself a household name among local nonprofits and their supporters. Today she’s one of a select group of Life Directors at Senior Services.

For starters, she continued to volunteer at the Children’s Center through high school at Salem Academy. While settling in as a wife and mother, she honed her volunteer skills in the Junior League, where she and colleagues received training and organized a cancer-patient support group at what is now Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.  “Our goal was, and is, to make a cancer patient’s journey as comfortable and positive as possible.”  To support the program, Marian helped to organize Winterlark, a black-tie dinner and auction at Graylyn — the 33rd Winterlark took place this past February.

Through the years she’s helped coordinate other notable events to benefit Brenner Children’s Hospital, Summit School, Salem Academy, and the Ronald McDonald House.

Her connection with Senior Services goes back to the earliest days when the headquarters was at Tobacco Square just north of downtown. With the opening of the Williams Adult Day Center in 2000, Marian stepped up again. Her mother, Sue Millaway, who died of Alzheimer’s in 2002, lived with Marian and Jim for the last five years of her life. “I couldn’t stand the idea that the wonderful services provided at the Day Center might not be available to people living with dementia, because of their inability to pay,” she said.  So another major fundraiser was born….The Evening for Alzheimer’s Care.  At first it was a cocktail buffet and silent auction at the adult day-care center on a Friday night.  It’s now grown to a sit-down dinner for 360 at Senior Services headquarters with pianist Kevin Douthit, as always, providing the entertainment. Proceeds in the thousands support “scholarships” for participants and their families.  The result:  “No person living with dementia and no caregiver who needs respite care is turned away.”

Any time for herself?  “I love to walk, watch movies, go to the beach, and spend time with my three grandchildren – boys 3 and 6 who live nearby; and finally a little girl, Beverly – named for my father.”

Written by: Jo Dawson, Volunteer Writer