I have walked in your shoes

KATHERINE PENER
County Elections Coordinator, Age 84
Miami Beach, Florida
Counsels breast cancer patients after surgery

I'm a breast cancer survivor, and I help women who've
had surgery for breast cancer. I've volunteered for the Reach
to Recovery program for twenty-two years.
Reach to Recovery works because all the volunteers
helping women through the trauma of breast cancer and
surgery have been there themselves. Seeing the volunteers,
women know they can beat this. It's critical that women see a survivor.
A patient's eyes light up when I say it's been twenty-nine years since
I had my operation. The Reach to Recovery program was founded in 1952
by Therese Lasa, a breast cancer survivor. Like others before her,
she had no one to turn to during that ordeal. The American Cancer Society
adopted the program the same year I had my surgery, in 1969.
I read about the program in the New York Post and asked my doctor.
"Shouldn't I have one of these visitors?" The doctor said,
"What do you need them for?" That feeling of being alone I will never forget.
I felt hopeless.I guarantee anyone who volunteers will feel better
emotionally, physically, and psychologically. I don't care who
you are or what you do. The people I know who volunteer have
smiles on their faces. The hours they give are worth more to them
than any money they could ever receive.

Volunteers are Ageless

NADIA BEN-YOUSSEF Writes poetry and sings for the elderly

Student, Age 13

Sydney, Montana

I've been singing and performing poetry since I was six years old. I guess

I've volunteered since I was eight. My singing is a cappella; I don't sing

with music. My singing and poetry are the same thing. I used to sing for my

mother's friends, and then I started singing for fund-raisers put on by church

groups, women's clubs, the Lions Club, and stuff like that.
I have three books of poetry and songs. A fourth is in production.

I donate all of the money from the books to children's charities. Money

from my first book went to a school for deaf and blind kids in

Great Falls, Montana, and to the Lions Club.

They did a campaign called Sight First to help the blind.

Money from the second book went to Home on the Range,

a shelter for abused children and to the Feed The Children

fund for orphans in Bosnia. I visit people at a local nursing home.

I do the women's hair, I do their nails, and they ask me to come by on

Sundays and perform for them. And I do. There's no microphone

and no musical accompaniment. I also sing for homebound hospice patients.

I visit them and talk and sing for them. I guess that's what's really

fulfilling to me, when I sing to someone who is dying,

someone who is really sick, and who isn't aware of much

of what's happening, but when I'm done there's a smile

on that person's face. I find that everyone needs love, everyone

can give love, and that love is what everyone wants.

That's a really important lesson to me.

Making someone happy makes you happy, and they go on

and make others happy and it's like a chain. Love is a chain of giving.

You change when you get older, but love is ageless.

Love is the same when you are 7, 13, or 102.

Welcome!

Welcome to the VistaCare Volunteers Mountain Region Blog!
The main purpose of this blog is to be a newsletter.
We will post important dates and events for the specific VistaCare Hospice
in your area. We will from time to time spotlight a volunteer from each area.
This blog really belongs to you the volunteers of VistaCare Hospice.
We would love to post special stories or events that have touched your life
as a volunteer of VistaCare. However, we would like to
remind you to use NO NAMES in your stories. Please follow the
HIPPA/CONFIDENTIALLY guidelines. Submit your stories to your
volunteer coordinator he/she will pass it on to Lynn Dell Swapp
the volunteer coordinator at the VistaCare Hospice of Ogden, Utah.

Mission Statement

The passionate pursuit of excellence in nurturing the physical, spiritual
and emotional well-being of our patients and their families, while being
responsible stewards of our human and financial resources.