Volunteer Spotlight: Samantha Best

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Name: Samantha Best

How long have you been a volunteer?
Almost a year.

What areas do you work in/what sort of tasks do you do?
Patient care in the Care Center, events, and holiday meals.

What made you decide to become a volunteer?
My mom (Volunteer Services Manager Syndie Best) is honestly probably the biggest reason why I’m here. I took the volunteer training class and she was just really encouraging and the rest is history. Now I’m here.

What is your favorite part about volunteering?
The relationships that you are able to build with the patients and also the other volunteers and staff members here. They have inspired me and made me a better person. I continue to grow and I’m so grateful for the people that I’ve met here.

Samantha and her sister, Emily,
at last fall's Walk of Remembrance.
What is one of your favorite stories or memories from volunteering?
There are two big ones. For one of the holiday meals there was a patient that I worked with on Saturday mornings in the Care Center and her family all lives out of town so she was going to go by herself. I asked her if it would be OK if I went with her. I was kind of her family for the night. It was incredible to see all that she’s been through in her life. She has an extraordinary story, and having the honor of being able to just listen to her and get to know her better was incredible. I’m very grateful for that.

The next one there was a World War II veteran that I was working with and his wife wanted a scrapbook of some pictures from when he was in the war. I got to sit next to him at his bed and he was flipping through the scrapbook and telling me stories. I’m like, that’s crazy -- how many people can say that they’ve done that, especially kids my age. It was incredible.

Comments

  1. Momma K (Sherrill)May 23, 2015 at 6:27 PM

    .
    So very proud of you and sure glad to be your gramma. Keep up the great work. You are a world changer for sure.

    May 23, 2015 at 6:22 PM

    ReplyDelete

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