Value of life: Give back 'more than you take'

Couple crossed the ocean to bring home point Ronda Greaves remembers sitting on a bag of rice as she flew by helicopter to a village in Sri Lanka days after the tsunami in December 2004. She sat about six inches from the open door before landing in a field with the rice delivery at a refugee camp in Thirukkovil, where she spent two weeks working up to 16 hours a day. Greaves, a registered nurse, and her husband, Bob, an emergency physician, collected medical supplies and spent $10,000 of their own money on the trip. "Everyone makes a footprint on the Earth and you have to make sure what you give back is more than you take," said Greaves, who lives on Kiawah Island. "That's the value of your life." Greaves, who moved back to Charleston about a year and a half ago, works as a nurse liaison with HCR Manor Care, which provides hospice care, outpatient therapy and skilled nursing. Besides working 40 hours a week, Greaves is a regular on Kiawah's Turtle Patrol. She helps out at Pet Helpers and gives back to the community in lots of different ways, including building a green-power house in Hollywood that will be fitted with geothermal heating, solar panels and non-toxic renewable resources. "She is highly motivated and passionate about what influence her life has on the lives of people around her, the environment, animals, particularly," said her husband, Bob, who works at Summerville Medical Center. In Ski Lanka, the couple, who were living in New Jersey at the time, set up a clinic with help from the government's special task force and a translator. They helped premature babies survive, handed out medications to the elderly and ill. They treated sick children and people suffering from dehydration. They changed dressings, set broken bones and comforted victims. Greaves' boss Courtney Nagy, marketing manager for HCR Manor Care for South Carolina, said Greaves' passion and enthusiasm filters into her professional and personal life. "Her coming back to Charleston is not only a lucky thing for us, but for the community as well," Nagy said. "Ronda is very energetic. She is definitely a problem-solver. She is caring and she seems to always put the patient first." Greaves and her husband take walks along the beach before and after work each day. They comb the sand looking for turtle nests and hatchlings as part of the island's Turtle Patrol program to help endangered loggerheads survive. Besides looking for turtles, Greaves said she and her husband grab trash bags and pick up garbage along the shore. They also are planning to help out with the annual Beach Sweep at the end of this month. They recycle about 60 percent of their household garbage, Bob Greaves said. Greaves is also involved with Pet Helpers, a no-kill animal adoption and rescue shelter on James Island. Greaves said she first got involved about a year ago when she pulled a kitten from a storm drain on a roadside in Barnwell. Suzanne Carr, the organization's executive director, said Greaves and her husband have donated money and supplies and spent time with animals. "She's the type of person that if I needed anything for the animals, I could just give her a call," Carr said.

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