Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 2, 1993 TAG: 9305010015
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Long
It may be that same calming voice that reassures terminally ill patients and their families that she meets in her volunteer work with New River Valley Hospice.
Anderson, 49, was one of six New River Valley award winners honored last month in Richmond with the Governor's Award for volunteering excellence. She has been a Hospice volunteer since 1987.
She became interested in hospice work after watching a television movie starring Linda Lavin of "Alice" sitcom fame.
Lavin played a nurse who "saw the need for terminally ill patients to have someone to talk with about their upcoming death," Anderson said.
A few weeks later, Anderson's minister mentioned that the New River Hospice program desperately needed volunteers.
She said she was unsure whether she could tackle the job, but it just kept running through her mind until she decided volunteering with Hospice was what God wanted her to do.
"Even though it's very rewarding, it can be a tough job to do," she said.
During seven weeks of training, Anderson learned how to talk to patients and, more importantly, how to listen.
The trainees visited a funeral home to learn about making burial arrangements, learned about the progression of terminal diseases and how to help patients.
But while many people think of death when they think of Hospice, Anderson said life is what volunteers concentrate on.
Most clients want to die at home. "We try to make what life they have as happy as we can."
Often, the dying person will confide their thoughts and worries to a volunteer more readily than to a family member.
"Sometimes, they just want the family to leave them alone," Anderson said.
The patients don't want to feel smothered by their loved ones. They want to go get groceries or go out to dinner. Sometimes, they don't want to burden family members with their concerns.
"I think peace of mind of the person who's dying is so important and sometimes people forget that," Anderson said.
Besides focusing on the needs of the terminally ill, Hospice volunteers also can help family members who need time away from home or an understanding ear.
Last year, Anderson was given the Mercury Award at the Hospice volunteer banquet for serving three families at once. She helped a 75-year-old man, a 9-year-old girl and a middle-aged man whose wife was a church friend of hers.
The work took its toll on her. In 1991, she discovered a melanoma on her leg that almost got into her bloodstream. She had to take a break from Hospice, but went right back as soon as she could. And she developed some blood-pressure problems.
"Working with that many people and then losing all three of them within a month" was difficult, Anderson said.
But Anderson has taken on two patients recently. Most of her patients live in Pulaski County or the Radford area.
"They know that wherever they need me, I'll go. There's no way I can say no."
Anderson said she was surprised to learn that two people had nominated her - Sgt. Jason Miles, who worked with her at the state police headquarters, and Carol Sazama Gibson, director of Hospice's volunteer services and spiritual care.
Being nominated once would have been sufficient, she said, but to be nominated twice, and to receive a silver medal, was a high honor.
"I feel like I get my rewards for the hospice work that I do. I feel very humble, having been rewarded in an extra way," Anderson said.
"The patients and their families have taught me so much about living - not dying - that it's been like a college education," she said. "It's the most rewarding thing I've ever done in my life. I get pleasure out of helping people, making them happy, making sure things are in order before they go."
Other medal winners from the New River Valley:
\ Whitfield Cobb of Blacksburg, former Virginia Tech professor, who received a gold award. He was nominated by Alison Limoges, then executive director of the Voluntary Action Center, for his work as a center and Hospice volunteer.
"For more than a year, he transported a patient over 50 miles twice a week for dialysis," Limoges wrote in her nomination.
"A widower who understands the hardships caused by lack of transportation, he frequently accepts our requests for long drives, as well as those that require lengthy or multiple office visits. . . . If the request is a difficult one, we call Dr. Cobb first," she wrote.
\ The Baby Closet, a project of the Radford Community Hospital Auxiliary, won a gold medal. It was organized in 1989 as an aid for mothers and families who are unable to provide adequate clothing for newborns.
In three years, the program has served about 360 mothers and families and received about 2,850 donations, said Beth Stauffer, the hospital's community services manager.
The Baby Closet also draws other "nontraditional volunteers." The senior center participates by taking knit or crocheted booties and caps. Churches sponsor baby showers, in which participants bring gifts for newborns that are handed on to the auxiliary.
\ Sue Voelkel, a Virginia Tech student involved in community projects such as an Alternative Spring Break program in Ivanhoe, where students learn about Appalachian culture and perform community service, received a gold medal.
She coordinates Tech's aluminum recycling program and is responsible for recycling 200 to 300 pounds of aluminum a week in a campus recycling program. The money raised supports other environmental programs and is used to buy rain-forest land.
She also is one of two original student members of a committee on homelessness in the Blacksburg area.
"Often, college students are caught up in their campus and their little part of the world. Sue thinks globally and acts on her beliefs to change her part of the world," Martha Peters, assistant director of YMCA Student Programs, wrote in nominating Voelkel.
\ Mabel Catron of Wytheville, who received a silver medal, was nominated by two people in recognition of her efforts as a trained volunteer financial counselor for Virginia Cooperative Extension and a volunteer for the Wythe County Department of Social Services.
As a financial counselor, she helps women take control of their finances by teaching them bill-paying and budgeting, said nominator Kathy Miller, a Wytheville extension agent.
Catron also has given more than 1,800 hours of her time since 1986 with the Department of Social Services, providing information and transportation and working with the U.S. Department of Agriculture commodity program and as an elderly-client case manager.
She also works to promote recycling and is involved with the Extension Homemakers Club and church activities.
\ The Blacksburg Interfaith Food Pantry, which took a silver medal, was organized in 1987 to distribute food to the needy in response to increased unemployment.
Last year, the group provided food to about 200 families per month that do not qualify for adequate assistance from public agencies.
by CNB