Max Smith, wtop.com

WASHINGTON – For many people, Thanksgiving is a day about food and family. But for some nurses, the holiday is a chance to give back.

Kim Hohenadel of Fairfax, Va. and Maxine Anderson of Maryland put on red T-shirts to staff the Occupy DC medical tent in McPherson Square. They say they’re mostly dealing with scrapes, bumps and bruises Thursday, but other medical volunteers there have dealt with more severe issues lately, including symptoms of hypothermia.

“For me, part of giving thanks was to come down and share some of what I know and what I can do — even if it is just a Band-Aid or a pep talk,” Hohenadel says.

“I try to do something good for people every year on Thanksgiving — I try to volunteer,” Anderson explains.

Volunteering at the encampment isn’t necessarily about support for the Occupy movement. There’s more to it, the women say.

“If you look around at the community of people here, it’s a very mixed group,” Hohenadel says. “There’s a lot of people who are here for clear philosophical reasons about Occupy DC, {the} Occupy movement. However, there are a lot of people who’ve come in from the fray, who are homeless, who may be homeless with mental health issues, and this is part of the problem in America.”

Hohenadel says the nurses are trying to do their part to help people, who “need care wherever they are.”

“Wherever we can give care to the needy, we’re there to help. That’s what nursing is all about,” Anderson agrees.

“Not everybody has a job where they can say, ‘I can actually do something on my off time to really help other people,’ and I think that’s a gift,” Hohenadel says. “So I sort of have to use it, I have to do it. It makes me happy.”

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