Hospice of Visiting Nurse Service Volunteer Receives State Award
Hospice of Visiting Nurse Service (VNS) Volunteer Mary Beth Palmer, of Wadsworth,
has been selected to receive the
“Volunteers
are the Heart of Hospice Award” in the Organizational Support category by the Ohio
Hospice & Palliative Care Organization (OHPCO). This prestigious award is presented
annually to three outstanding hospice volunteers in Ohio and recognizes the important
role that volunteers play in hospice and end of life care. She will be recognized
at a November 9 awards luncheon at the annual OHPCO meeting in Columbus, Ohio.
Ms. Palmer has been volunteering for Hospice of VNS for five years, since the death
of her husband at the Hospice of VNS Care Center in Fairlawn. She experienced first-hand
what it is like to be the spouse of a hospice patient and since then has been working
tirelessly to help others with their grief and educate the community about hospice.
She visits hospice patients and their families at the Care Center, as well as being
involved with other projects. She is involved in Camp Promise, an annual day camp
for grieving children held at Hospice of VNS now in its’ third year, as well as
being the Art Coordinator for Camp Quality, a week-long camp for children diagnosed
with cancer, for the past 10 years.
After retiring from teaching at Copley-Fairlawn Middle School this year, Ms. Palmer
now coordinates a newly developed Hospice of VNS outreach program educating area
junior high school students on hospice and palliative care. Other projects at Hospice
of VNS she is involved in include the creation of memory books for hospice patients
to record experiences in their lives to leave behind for loved ones and coordinating
massive holiday cookie-bakes.