PTH celebrates its numerous volunteers

By Stuart Hedstrom 
Staff Writer

    SANGERVILLE — For nearly three decades Pine Tree Hospice (PTH) has offered numerous services free of charge to individuals and families during the time of dying and bereavement. Instrumental to carrying out the organization’s many programs are PTH’s volunteers — “The Lights of Hospice” as stated on the cover of the 2013 annual report who add brightness to those they serve — who were celebrated during the annual meeting Nov. 14 at the East Sangerville Grange.

    The first recognitions of the evening were the PTH Board of Directors. Alice Bunn, Judy Doore and Treasurer Rhonda Taylor have all completed their first three-year terms on the board. Secretary Ardie Hacker completed her second term, and she will be departing to go back to serving PTH in other capacities.
    The election of PTH officers and directors for 2013-14 consisted of Dale Shaw for another year as president and Kathleen Thibault, D.O. and Taylor again as vice president and treasurer respectively. Donna Peterson was elected as secretary and Dodie Cutis was voted to the board of directors.
    Coordinator of Volunteers and Client Services Betsy Miller Minott, who began her job at the start of April, said, “I have the great honor today of presenting awards and recognitions to our volunteers. If I could I would give awards to all our volunteers.” She added that PTH cannot run without the efforts of those who donate their time to the organization.
    Volunteers who have taken part in training for Evergreen, the PTH Center for Grieving Children and Adults, are Beatrice Borden, Bob Brooks, Doris Coy, Pam London, Dona Macomber, Minott, Laura Posca and Roy Ulrickson. The eight new Community Hospice Education participants are Borden, Brooks, London, Macomber, Minott, Rita Mountain, Posca and Ulrickson. These volunteers were each given a copy of “A Healing Touch: True Stories of Life, Death and Hospice,” edited by Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo.
    “I’m pleased to recognize seven volunteers who have been here for five years,” Minott said. Reaching the half decade mark with PTH is Bunn, Susan Cowles, Beverly Crockett, Karen Dow, Deborah Drew, Pam Tower and Shawna Toby.
    “For 10 years we have a volunteer who is our volunteer chaplain,” Minott said about Ray Beless. She said Beless also serves as chaplain at Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft and “he has his own congregation.”
    “We have three people who have been with us for 15 years,” she said in naming Priscilla Higgins, Judy Love and Beth Weatherbee.
    Minott said the volunteer with the most direct hours is Kim Kagan, she said this is not the first year Kagan has received this honor, and the volunteer with the most indirect care hours is Sherry Corbin. “This is the woman behind the website,” Minott said.
    Special thanks and recognition went to Mark Chevalier, John Kiernan, Tower, Ulrickson as well as to Foxcroft Academy.
    “One of the things we have really wanted to do is reach out to the community and let people know they all have something to offer,” Executive Director Jane Stitham said. “What we are all about is collaboration and working together. We wanted to start a tradition of recognizing a business that has been working with us.”
    Stitham then mentioned the numerous hours members of the Foxcroft Academy community have given to PTH. She said the annual report was designed by organization Media Consultant and Foxcroft student Phuong (Fia) Dang, the school’s Director of Communications Officer Chevalier serves on the board of directors and volunteers in many other capacities and “the Headmaster Arnold Shorey has opened up the school to us for Sound Bytes.” Stitham thanked music teacher Josh Guthrie for performing at the fund-raising concert and the maintenance crew for all their work in setting up for the performances.
    “They also have provided a sponsorship for us this year,” Stitham said, saying PTH officials began to think about how they could thank Foxcroft Academy. She said a decade ago a Horizon Scholarship Fund began to provide students various experiences across the country that will not only enrich the scholarship recipients but enable them to come back to school and share their experience and new found knowledge with others.
    Horizon Scholarship recipient and current Foxcroft junior Fern Morrison, who is also a PTH volunteer said, “I went into Nanoscience for a week at UCLA.” Morrison then accepted a donation on Foxcroft Academy’s behalf from PTH for the fund to help provide similar enrichment experiences in the future.
    Stitham concluded the annual meeting with a quote from Hubert Selby Jr.’s novel “Requiem for a Dream,” — “There’s sorrow and pain in everyone’s life, but every now and then there’s a ray of light that melts the loneliness in your heart and brings comfort like hot soup and soft bread.”
    She said the cards placed at each spot on the tables contains “75 different things we have done as a volunteer hospice. What we want to show is how each one of these half hours warms the people around us.”
    The lights were then dimmed as the over 50 people in attendance took turns reading the cards at their places while lighting candles. The cards covered actions such as “playing board games” and “watch TV” to “shovel snow,” “help a client adopt a companion animal,” and “deliver a donated life chair to a client.”
    For more information on PTH and its numerous services and many volunteer possibilities, please contact 564-4346 or wecare@pinetreehospice.org or go to www.pinetreehospice.org, www.facebook.com/PineTreeHospice or www.facebook.com/EvergreenPTH.