One of our amazing home care nurses, Rachel Nelson, is collecting gently used sneakers and athletic shoes to help out orphans and families in developing nations. You can help her toward her goal of gathering 2,500 pairs of shoes! Just drop off your gently worn athletic shoes to Angela Hospice between now and the end of July. Both child and adult sizes will be collected. The shoes will be sold to Sneakers4Funds, a group that ships shoes to micro-entrepreneurs in developing nations so that they can run a small business and support their families. Proceeds from the sale to Sneakers4Funds will be contributed to America World Adoption, serving the basic needs of orphaned children in nine countries around the world. “I’ve always had a heart for orphans,” Rachel said. “And, I like how this will give others the chance to rise up out of poverty.” Rachel knows it’s usually businesses or organizations that attempt to hold shoe-drives with a goal as large as 2,500 pairs, but she wa...

Name: Dawn Foster, Housekeeping/Laundry Supervisor How long have you worked here? Six years. What made you decide to work here? I heard about this place working in this field – I work in health care, it’s the only thing I’ve ever done – and we had patients that were enrolled in Angela Hospice so I would have interactions with the social workers and the nurses that came to our facility. They were always so cheerful and delightful. I found out it was Angela Hospice so that always stayed in my mind. I stayed at that job for 10 years and they outsourced my position so I needed to find another job. The first place I thought of was Angela Hospice, and the timing of it was crazy because at that time I didn’t know that they were building a new Care Center. …I had known that they didn’t have a housekeeping and laundry supervisor. I went on the website and sure enough there was a posting. What’s a typical day like for you? A typical day here is busy. (laughs) Of course...

Name: Mary Ann Wiegel How long have you been a volunteer? Three years. What areas do you work in/what sort of tasks do you do as a volunteer? Hospitality cart, caregiver dinner once a month, and the annual events. What made you decide to become a volunteer? I like being a volunteer. I think it’s been rewarding to give back and also, the people we serve really appreciate it. That’s what it’s all about. And I’m a healthy person so I can do it. Why Angela Hospice? I live in the vicinity. Mary Ann does the hospitality cart each week in the Care Center. What is your favorite part about volunteering? The people here. It’s a great place to be, everybody’s friendly. And the families we serve dinner for appreciate everything you do. That’s the rewarding part. What is one of your favorite stories or memories from volunteering? There’s just too many. Probably talking, conversing with some of the patients who do care to talk to you. You know they a...

Name: Margaret Levine, Bereavement Office Coordinator How long have you worked here? Three years. What made you decide to work here? I’ve been a volunteer here for 20 years. One of the things I did, besides home care, was work in the bereavement department. One of the social workers let me know that this position was going to be available and I thought, “I love doing that.” And I loved all these people. I thought I’d be happy here, and I am. How had you heard of Angela Hospice? Originally, I think this building had been up a couple of years. I just went by and thought that I wanted to learn more about hospice. It was kind of new to my thinking at the time. So I called them and I thought I’d take the volunteer classes but they only offered them in the day and I worked during the day. It was probably a year later before I could get in the classes, so I just kept talking to different people here about the classes. The more you hear the more interested you become, a...

Jacki Shipley might not have had any hospice experience before becoming an Angela Hospice volunteer, but she did have barbeque experience. “I barbeque as much as I can in the summer,” she laughed. “I love the grill.” Jacki, who has been an Angela Hospice volunteer since 2009, has been working at the Care Center’s weekly summer barbeques the last few years. She doesn’t work the grill here though – another volunteer does that – but she does help in plenty of other ways. A short list includes making salads and desserts, helping set up the food and silverware before patients and their families arrive, and bringing food to patients in the Care Center that can’t make it to the atrium. “I think the whole hospitality piece is just a great thing that Angela Hospice does,” Jacki said. “Whether it’s the caretaker dinners, or tea, or the barbeques during the summer…sometimes it’s someone in the family’s only meal. “To be able to give them some little piece of comfort is n...