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2007 Winners--Wisconsin Awards for Volunteer Excellence (WAVE)
Category: Community Service Programs
Winning Program: "Passport 55," Mercy Medical Center Auxiliary, Oshkosh
Passport 55 is a unique program for adults over the age of 55 that has been offered by Mercy Medical Center (MMC) and supported by the MMC Auxiliary for 20 years.
In 1987, the MMC staff identified a need for older patients to have someone familiar with hospital bills and insurance statements to help them sort out what has been paid, what will be paid by a third party and what must be paid by the patient. Each year, the MMC Auxiliary provides auxiliary/volunteer clerical and reception support, as well as essential funding to cover the cost of one full-time and half-time trained counselors, who assist older adults or a member of their family, to sort out the confusing array of medical bills and insurance statements that can follow an illness or death.
Passport 55 membership is open to all, not only MMC patients, providing both financial and psychological relief from health care costs and paperwork.
Category: In-service Hospital Volunteer Programs
Winning Program: "Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP)," Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare - Elmbrook Memorial Auxiliary
All too often, hospitalized seniors experience a decline in their physical and mental abilities, making it difficult for them to fully recover from their illness or injury. The Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP) offered at Elmbrook Memorial Hospital and staffed by specially trained volunteers from the Elmbrook Memorial Auxiliary, focuses on improving the hospital experience for older patients by helping them maintain their physical and cognitive function throughout their hospital stay; maximize their independence at the time of discharge from the hospital; assist them in the transition from hospital to home; and prevent future unplanned re-admission to the hospital.
All HELP volunteers attend a special eight-hour training session and quarterly inservices and competencies. Each HELP patient receives up to three visits per day from the volunteers, during which the volunteers encourage and sit with the older patients while they eat; help them walk or do simple exercises in bed; offer a listening ear; and encourage therapeutic recreational activities, such as listening to music, watching movies, playing cards, reminiscing, or just sitting quietly nearby. These interactions help the patients remain alert, on track with eating and sleep routines, mobile, and engaged with the world around them.
Category: Fundraising Programs
Winning Program: "Mother's Day Flower & Spring Sale," Partners of St. Nicholas Hospital, Sheboygan
The members of the Partners of St. Nicholas Hospital were searching for a product to enhance their already successful annual flower sale. Their goals for such a product were to find an environmentally safe product from a company that hold values similar to their hospital, and to find one that encouraged their male Partners members to become more involved in their fundraising events.
That is when they learned of Fr. Dom's Duck's Doo Compost - a great product that met all goals for enhancing their already successful event. Father Dom is a Catholic priest who runs the compost operation in Paris, Wisconsin, and employs mostly mentally challenged and physically disabled workers. The compost is a naturally blend of pressed cranberries, rice hulls, duck manure, wood shavings, pickles and vanilla bean waste products. After taxes and expenses, all profits go to benefit people of all races and religions across the U.S. The funds raised by the Partners of St. Nicholas hospital from their enhanced spring sale were used to support the Lifeline service, provide five scholarships, and maintain the Health Express mobile unit that serves Sheboygan County and was purchased with Partners funding.
Category: Community Outreach and/or Collaboration Programs
Winning Program: "Wigs For Patients Program," Mercy Health System Association of Volunteers, Janesville
The "Wigs For Patients" program, established by the Mercy Health System (MHA) Association of Volunteers in 1994, offers high-quality wigs to patients in need and directs them to a local hairstyling salon for further services. The program was designed to give patients a boost, helping them look and feel better as they concentrate on physically getting better. In addition to their funding support, offering the opportunity to provide the wigs to patients at no or limited cost, the MHA Association of Volunteers has developed a collaborative relationship with a local hairstyling salon, where specially trained wig stylists help clients select a wig, provide custom fitting, demonstrate how to properly care for the new wig, and offer quiet, confidential care in a private setting.
Participants in the Wigs For Patients program are referred by the Mercy Regional Cancer Center, as well as local cancer support groups, but the program is open beyond just MHS patients or Janesville residents - anyone, regardless of affiliation or geographic location, can request services. To date, the program has served over 1,400 patients, providing more than $83,000 worth of services.
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