Hospice Volunteer Newsletter - Holiday Edition

FEBRUARY Marge Mijocevic Carrie McLean

CPA CPA

02/04 02/21

MARCH James Beddall Jane Showalter Sally Greger Pam Knowlton

NCPA CPA CPA CPA

03/01 03/04 03/07 03/24

DECEMBER Carol Weaver Julie Hummert Virginia Telford Carol Hurley Deb Mickey Courtney Payne

NCPA Illinois Illinois CPA CPA Illinois

12/02 12/03 12/03 12/09 12/17 12/28

NCPA CPA

Holiday Edition

Santa, Please send lots of squeaky toys and treats!

Ms. Ember from CPA!

JANUARY Shelly Wolfe Mary Trephan

VolunteerNEWS Hospice & Home Health

01/07 01/11

Welcome to Celtic Hospice’s Volunteer News

In this Issue » RED Fridays

As the holidays approach, we at Celtic Healthcare would like to thank you, our volunteers, for the greatest gift that one can give – that of your time and presence.

Whether you hold a hand, drive your four-legged volunteer to facilities for visits or help our offices run smoothly, we treasure your commitment to our hospice patients. May you have a wonderful Holiday Season filled with family and friends!

Hospice & Home Health

» Christmas in September: A Hospice Christmas Miracle

1901 Frank Scott Parkway, Suite 2 Shiloh, IL 62269

» Meet Vegas: Therapy Dog

You may have seen many of our Celtic employees and volunteers dressed in red shirts on recent Fridays, and you may have asked, “What is with those red shirts?”

» Celtic Memory Bears: A Meaningful Remembrance

RED Shirt Friday’s mission is to show support for our servicemen and servicewomen. RED stands for Remember Everyone Deployed. Not only are we recognizing the sacrifice of our servicemen and servicewomen, but our Celtic RED Shirts raised almost $2,000 for our Spring Honor Flight Trip, which will be sending our WWII heroes to Washington, DC to visit the monuments in their honor.

» Birthdays

Celtic Healthcare

RED Fridays: Remembering Everyone Deployed

800.355.8894 mcandrewk@celtichealthcare.com www.celtichealthcare.com

If you have purchased a RED shirt, we thank you for your support honoring both our current and past heroes!

ISSUE 2 | VOLUNTEER NEWS

Christmas In September: A Hospice Christmas Miracle

Ms. Vegas is a 6½ year old Petite Sheltie Collie registered with Pleasure of You Company Therapy Dogs, Inc. Ms. Vegas is also listed in the Canine Good Citizen Archives by AKC. She has been a therapeutic visitation dog since June 2, 2010 and a volunteer with Celtic Hospice since January 2011.

Fifty-seven year old Veronique Jeffers loves Christmas.

Veronique has a happy, full life as a wife, mother of four, and grandmother. She also has a devastating life-limiting disease thyroid cancer.

Hospice

Veronique and her family, with the support of Celtic Hospice employees and volunteers and an outpouring from her Litchfield, Illinois community, however, are not letting cancer limit her ability to enjoy life, even at this stage of the journey.

Who says Christmas HAS to be celebrated on December 25th?

The Jeffers family celebrated Christmas this year in September.

September 13th to be exact. A day that just so happened to be Veronique’s 57th birthday.

During a Celtic Hospice IDT (Interdisciplinary Team Meeting), where team members discuss and collaborate on care plans for patients, Sara Spencer, Celtic Hospice Volunteer Coordinator, was deeply affected when she heard the news of patient Veronique Jeffers.

As a mother of three herself, one being the same age as Veronique’s 12 year old son, Sara listened thoughtfully and empathetically as Hospice Nurses Nicole Fenton and Vicki Law reported on Veronique’s status. During the course of the discussion, they briefly mentioned Veronique’s love for Christmas and how she shared her sadness at the thought of likely not being able to participate in their yearly tradition of visiting the Christmas tree farm, cutting down the tree together, and taking a family photo this year. They shared how heartbroken her 12-year old son was over his mother’s illness, and how wonderful her loving husband was, taking a leave of absence from his Department Manager role at Walmart, to stay home and care for Veronique.

A light bulb went off in Sara’s head. Why can’t we give Veronique one last Christmas? We don’t need to wait. Let’s do Christmas now. So Sara made a visit, along with Nicole and Vicki, to Veronique and her family’s home to discuss the idea.

The family and Veronique were overjoyed and excited about the prospect of celebrating Christmas in September.

Sara contacted all 17 of her volunteers who overwhelmingly responded with willingness to help provide Veronique with possibly her last Christmas with her family. Churches and businesses were contacted and responded with donations and money and gift cards.

Gifts were bought. Legos and PlayStation games for Veronique’s 12-year old son, a new vacuum cleaner (which Veronique requested as her and her husband’s gift), mud boots for all three of them, birdfeeders and bird seed for the older children, and Little Debbie Cakes and a hummingbird feeder for her Mom. All of these were specifically chosen by Veronique and purchased by Sarah and her team of Christmas angels, who wrapped the gifts beautifully to place under the tree.

PET Therapy

Volunteer Daniken Christmas Tree Farm opened for a few hours in September just for the Jeffers family. The whole gang gathered, chose two trees – one for the living room to be decorated and one to be planted in the yard as a memorial to Veronique and her special Christmas in September celebration. Celtic Hospice Nurse, Vicki joined the family on this trip and was there to make sure Veronique was medically assisted. Vicki was invited to be in the family photo this year too, which is being printed and framed for each family member.

Dog

Ms. Vegas got her name from her owner, Sandra, who loves to vacation in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is a unique name many can relate to and remember. Comments such as, “Here comes Ms. Las Vegas” or “A visit from Ms. Vegas is better than a trip to Las Vegas” are frequently heard when Ms. Vegas does her hospice volunteer work As a household pet, Ms. Vegas enjoys going to work. A mention of visiting her “friends” brings her quickly to the door ready to go. Her small size allows her to rest nicely on laps or snuggling up next to a patient in bed. Ms. Vegas relaxes with the petting and pampering from her “friends” while the patient also relaxes, smiles and enjoys the special one–on–one interaction. It is a very special, loving bond between human and animal, and a win-win relationship for all involved.

Thank you Ms. Vegas and Sandra for your service and commitment to Celtic Hospice.

Maddie VanDaele, Celtic Hospice Volunteer, belongs to The Hospice Volunteer Initiative* at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. When she told her friends there about Veronique and her family’s Christmas wish, they decided to shop for and donate all the food to give the family their proper traditional Christmas dinner. Sarah prepared the meal in her own kitchen and delivered a fresh baked ham and turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, and rolls as well as the three cream pies Veronique requested: coconut cream, chocolate cream, and banana cream.

Veronique’s best friend baked Christmas cookies.

Celtic Memory Bears: A Meaningful Remembrance “Our memory bear is so precious! It sits in Mom’s 80-year old rocking chair. Every time I walk by it, I get a warm and fuzzy feeling of her love.”

So many lovely touches go into making the bears. In fact, Georgia named the Celtic prototype memory bear “Stanley” after her paternal grandfather.

Our Celtic Hospice team is made up of many dedicated and talented people, and we are very fortunate to have our creative seamstress, Georgia Probst, in North Central PA, who specializes in making hospice memory bears.

Georgia started sewing in 6th grade, which led her to majoring in Home Economics in high school. She had the privilege of being the Home Economics speaker of her graduating class. “It’s more than a hobby!” Probst shares. “I have taught kids to sew and have made over 300 quilts. Some of the quilts now reside in several other countries.”

Sarah delivered the wrapped gifts Saturday evening after the tree was put up and decorated by the family and in preparation for Sunday’s celebration. Christmas at the Jeffers home this year was on September 13, 2015 – Veronique’s 57th birthday!

Georgia has been a volunteer with Celtic since 2014 when hospice began in the North Central PA region.

Because of her special gift and talent, we often receive beautiful thank you notes expressing warmth and gratitude like the one above from the daughter of passed Celtic Hospice patient who received a memory bear made out of one of her Mom’s special sweatshirts.

Georgia not only gives of her free time as our NCPA hospice seamstress, she also prepares the monthly bereavement mailings for our Celtic families as well.

Cancer did not limit Veronique from Christmas with her family this year thanks to the amazing volunteers and team members at Celtic Hospice, the Hospice Volunteer Initiative, and the many other supporters from the community.

Merry Christmas Veronique.

Georgia says, “I love being part of the Celtic team. It gives me a sense that I am helping to make a difference in peoples’ lives. The staff and volunteers are loving, kind and compassionate and treat each family as if they are our ‘own’ family.”

Merry Christmas Veronique! *About the Hospice Volunteer Initiative: The Hospice Volunteer Initiative was founded by members of the Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville Campus (SIUE) School of Pharmacy Class of 2015 in the Fall of 2012.

Jodi McKinney, Celtic Director of Corporate Communications

She goes on to say, “When I began making memory bears, I felt that it made sense; most people love teddy bears. To me, these bears are a great way to commemorate a loved one who has passed on.

What a perfect way for families to remember and honor their loved ones by turning a shirt or article of clothing that may otherwise be discarded into a memory bear to be loved and cherished for years to come.”

“We received the bear, and it looks great. It is such a nice memento of my Dad.” - daughter of a passed Celtic patient and recipient of a memory bear made out of her dad’s Hawaiian shirt.

Donna Miller, Celtic Volunteer Coordinator, CPA & NCPA

The Celtic Singers of Missouri