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 About
Us
SWAN (Serving Women Across Nations) is a
family-based humanitarian organization
(501c3) that was born when author Liz Adair and
daughters Ruth Lavine and Terry Gifford published Lucy Shook’s Letters from
Afghanistan.
Lucy Shook was
mother to Liz and grandmother to Ruth and Terry. In 1965
she accompanied her husband, Jim, to Afghanistan to work for the
Agency for International Development (AID). Jim worked on an
irrigation project outside of Lashkar Gah. Lucy was hired to
run the 'Staff House' which was a hotel/restaurant for the American
contingent there. In a country where women were hidden from
public view, Lucy found herself boss-lady to fifteen Afghan
men. Her letters home were wonderfully descriptive of the
people, sights, sounds, and adventures that she experienced over her
five year stay in Afghanistan. Liz Adair and Ruth Lavine
edited and prepared the letters for print, and in the summer of 2003
Lucy
Shook’s Letters from Afghanistan came off the
press.
Throughout Lucy's
letters is displayed her empathy and desire to give aid to the
people that surrounded her. Many letters share
heartwarming, and sometimes heartwrenching, stories of the people in
need and the simple ways she tried to help.
In an effort
to carry on the same sentiment of outreach, SWAN was organized
to channel proceeds from Lucy
Shook’s Letters from Afghanistan to help women and
children in need. SWAN is a 501 (c) (3) organization that is
staffed by volunteers who fund all operational costs so that
proceeds can arrive in their entirety to women and children in
need.
Terry is mother of six and lives in
Sedro Woolley, Washington, with her husband Matthew, who practices
dentistry. When she was twenty-one, Terry spent a year and a
half as a missionary in Bolivia. Since then, she has yearned
to help the plight of the poor. Her grandmothers letters have
opened up the avenue to better the lives of women and children in
stifling poverty. Terry is the driving force for SWAN
Foundation.
Liz has raised seven children in Ferndale, Washington with her husband
Derrill Adair, who works in construction management. Liz spent years
teaching remedial reading and overseeing a tutorial business. She took time off to
be a full-time mom, and during that time ran her own bakery adjacent
to her home which produced delicious pies, cinnamon rolls and carrot
cakes for restaurants and delis in two counties. Presently, she is fulfilling
a lifelong dream of writing. She has four mysteries
published through Deseret Books.
Ruth lives in Sedro Woolley,
Washington, with her husband, Richard Lavine who is in
management for Grocery outlet. They have two
daughters. The eldest is named after her great-grandmother, Lucy
Alice, who wrote Lucy
Shook’s Letters from Afghanistan. Ruth gained her computer and
business skills while attending college and working as secretary for
an industrial construction company. She now works from home so
as to be with her small children. Ruth was indispensable in
getting the book ready to print.
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