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| Serving Muskegon, Ottawa, Oceana &
Newaygo Counties |
888 Terrace Street
Muskegon, MI 49440-1129
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Phone (231) 726-5025
Toll Free 1-800-499-5025
Fax (231) 728-4958
TDD 1-800-649-3777
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24 Hour Service
7 Days A Week
A nurse is on call after office hours and can be reached by
calling
1-231-726-5025 or
1-800-499-5025
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| Spring 2007 |
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Board of Directors Garry Olson, Chair
Todd Helle, Esq., Vice-Chair
Nancy Bierenga, Secretary
David Gingras, Treasurer
Wilmer Cullen
Ron Haase
Donna Lachniet
Robert Scolnik
Mary Tobin
Staff
Nancy McCarthy,, MSN, President
and CEO
Lisa Huntoon, PT, Rehabilitation
Director
Karen Kueny, BSN, Clinical
Information Systems Director
Amy jo Terry, Quality Improvement
Director
Shelby Nakon, Finance Director
Linda Scott, BSN,
Private Care Director
Kathy Smith, BSN,
Director of Nursing Services
Amy Purple, RN, CHPN, Hospice
Director |
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New Year Begins with
Gratitude for Many Gifts |
It’s the first year of our second century of
service! Even as we venture confidently
into the future, we look back one last time
to thank those whose generosity as our
centennial year came to a close made for a
very happy new year indeed.
In our last newsletter we invited you
to join our Centennial Club, an initiative
designed to insure our agency’s fiscal
health by building our endowment funds at
the Community Foundation for Muskegon
County. And you responded! By year end,
105 charter members had joined, and their
gifts increased our home care and hospice
endowed funds by more than $17,000.
Those gifts will remain in this community
forever, and only the income will be used to
provide quality home health and hospice
care to our neighbors. We are in awe of
the generosity of this community, and we
thank you. And we look forward to seeing
our Centennial Club members at special
events being planned just for them in the
months and years to come.
Another gift that will really help us to
ring in the new came from
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| John Van Wyck of Verizon presents $10,000 grant to Nancy McCarthy at HVNS Holiday Open House December 14, 2006. |
friends in the
phone business. The Verizon Foundation
granted HVNS $10,000 to assist with our
exciting new rural telemedicine project,
and John Van Wyck, Verizon’s director of
external communications, dropped by
our Holiday Open House in December
to present a check to President Nancy
McCarthy. The rural telemedicine project is
rolling out on schedule this spring. Watch
for updates in future HouseCalls. |
To those who helped us deck the halls… |
 Speaking of our Holiday Open
House, we thank the following generous
fl oral designers who created beautiful
everlasting holiday wreaths for our Hospice
House doors: Barry’s Greenhouse, Chalet
House of Flowers, Eastern Floral, LeFleur,
Muskegon Floral, Ray and Sharon’s, and
Wassermans. We especially appreciate our
friends at Warner, Norcross & Judd, who
donated the beautifully decorated Holiday
Tree that adorned our day room.
And a special thanks to all who
joined us for treats and tours, carols and
conversation. Dennis Threadgill’s photos
here are worth a thousand words. |
| Home
health
nurse
Vicky
Abbott
accompanies
Hospice
pastors Jon
Rager and
Russ Damm as they croon Christmas carols. |
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| Julia Rager, granddaughter of Jon
Rager, makes a pretty picture next to
the Christmas tree donated by Warner,
Norcross & Judd. |
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| Open house guests sample homemade
holiday treats. |
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| It is the unexpected gifts you treasure
the most, such as the call late last year
that resulted in a gift from John Contrady
in memory of his wife, Edna Louise. (See
story page 2.) Thank you, John, for your
generosity, and a lasting memorial to a
lovely lady. |
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Many Hands Helping at HVNS Hospice |
| Mary Ponstein Named Volunteer Coordinator, Sister Eileen Accepts New Post |
In August 2005 Sister Eileen Cordes, of
Shelby, was looking for her “next job.” A
Grand Rapids native, she entered the
Sisters of Mercy in 1957, then earned
a bachelor’s degree in education
from Detroit Mercy College and a
master’s degree from the University
of Dayton. She has been a teacher
and principal in Catholic elementary
schools, worked in two hospitals, was
the Director of Help Pregnancy Crisis Aid in Grand Rapids
and, while there, established “My Sister’s House,” a program
to provide transitional housing and counseling to women.
She also held an administrative position at the Fort Rosa
Parks Residential Treatment Center in Walkerville. After a
career like that, most people would be ready to retire.
Not Sister Eileen. “Someone told me I’d be a good hospice
person,” she recalled, so she contacted Hackley VNS and
Hospice. Director Amy Purple knew a good person when she
saw her, and hired her for a part-time pastoral care position.
Eventually, the hospice volunteer coordinator position
became available, so Sister Eileen donned that hat, as well.
Since that time, the number of volunteer hours has
nearly quadrupled, and the variety of
volunteer “jobs” has also increased. Putting together information packets, logging
names and addresses for bereavement follow up,
and numerous other tasks accomplished by volunteers help
the HVNS Hospice run more efficiently and cost-effectively.
“And we have fun doing it,” commented Sister Eileen,
describing the camaraderie during volunteer work sessions
at Hospice headquarters.
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| Many of the HVNS Hospice volunteers gathered for a holiday potluck
in December and posed for this photograph with Sister Eileen |
Volunteers are
also available to cover
two-hour shifts in
the Scolnik Hospice
House four times a
day. They help with
patient meals, greet
visitors, and, as Sister
Eileen adds, “do
whatever they can to
assist patients, visitors
and staff.” Others provide respite to caregivers of in-home
hospice patients, deliver medications, and pick up and
deliver patient meals.
Everyone has skills that Hospice can use. For example,
Matthew Johnson (see photos page 2) loves to read to and
visit with patients.
Hospice volunteers must attend orientation and training,
and Sister Eileen has increased
 |
| PASSING OF THE BATON. New volunteer coordinator
Mary Ponstein (left) shares a laugh with Sister
Eileen Cordes. |
the number of training
opportunities so that volunteers can get started as soon as
they are ready. “You don’t want to keep a volunteer waiting
to help,” she affirmed. That’s exactly what happened when
Mary Ponstein signed up with Volunteer Muskegon and was
“matched” with the hospice service of Hackley VNS.
“The first call I received was from Sister
Eileen,” said Mary, “so I figured it was meant
to be.”
Mary was so ready to start volunteering
last November that Sister Eileen held a
special orientation session just for her and
one other volunteer. Before long, it was
obvious that Sister Eileen had a potential
replacement for her own job.
And that suited Sister Eileen just fine.
“My first love is spiritual care, and a full-time
position became available,” she explained.
So that is the “next job” for Sister Eileen, who
in August will celebrate her golden jubilee
with the Sisters of Mercy.
Mary Ponstein, meanwhile, has also found a new job
to love. She is busy getting to know the volunteers and all
they do, but she says that Hospice can always use more
volunteers, especially on weekends in the Hospice House and
with in-home hospice patients. To inquire about volunteer
opportunities, call her at 231-726-5025 or 800-499-5025. |
| Spotlight on Volunteers |
|
Matthew
Johnson,
22, has
been blind
since birth,
but he
loves to
read to
others,
so he
visits the Scolnik Hospice House
every Monday and Wednesday to read
to patients
such as Merle Oldt. Whether
Bible verse or stories, his
reading material
is translated into Braille for him by his
healthcare assistant and longtime friend,
Grace Lynn
(pictured with
Matthew at right).
Matthew began
volunteering at
Hospice when
Kim Sturm, Career
Preparation
Specialist with
Muskegon Public
Schools and a
Hospice volunteer herself, suggested
it might be something he’d like to do. |
Memorial Gift Honors
“Wife, Friend, Intellectual Buddy” |
When Edna Contrady departed this world on October
19, 2006, she and her husband John had been
married 53-1/2 years. “And I don’t regret a day,” said John
Contrady, who recently honored Edna’s memory with
the lasting gift of a patient bedroom named for her at the
Scolnik Hospice House of Hackley VNS. The Wolf Lake
Room has been designated in memory of Mrs. Contrady.
Born in McAdoo, Pennsylvania, educated at Penn
State University, John was working for the W.T. Grant
Company in Waterloo, Iowa, when he met Edna, a
University of Iowa graduate, who was employed by
competitor Allied Department Stores there. They married
in 1953, and she accompanied him from assignment to
assignment. They arrived in Muskegon in 1959 for what was supposed to be only
two years. In 1967 John opened a general accounting and tax preparation service,
Contrady & Contrady, which still serves clients (for tax preparation only) on Laketon
Avenue. Edna taught in the Muskegon Public Schools for 30 years, and all three of
their children—Suzanne, John, and Gary—graduated from there.
“We never thought about dying,” John reveals.
“We just lived every moment to
its fullest.” When Edna began exhibiting symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, at first
John thought “we were just getting old.” But John realized he was doing more and
more of the daily tasks Edna once did for herself. One morning Edna said, “I can’t
walk.” A visit to the Hackley Emergency Room that day led to extensive tests, after
which an emergency room physician asked John if he would consider hospice care
for Edna through the Hackley Visiting Nurse Services. John agreed, and for the next
five months, he says, “HVNS provided excellent care and top-notch service” in the
couple’s home.
In memory of the woman he recalls as “my wife, my friend, my intellectual
buddy,” John Contrady has given a gift that will help others to receive “top-notch”
hospice services, too. On behalf of all those his generosity will benefit, Hackley VNS
and Hospice extends its enduring gratitude. |
New Board On Board |
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| Standing, left to right: Garry Olson, Donna
Lachniet, Todd Helle, Mary Tobin, David Gingras
Seated, left to right: Bob Scolnik, Ron Haase,
Wilmer Cullen, Nancy Bierenga |
We are fortunate to have a topnotch board of directors
to help us chart our future course. At the end of 2006, Bob
Scolnik stepped down as Chair and Garry Olson stepped
up. Chairman since 2003, Bob has guided us through
some of the busiest and most productive years of our
history. We have benefited greatly from his strategic vision
and unflagging energy, and we appreciate his ongoing
service on the board. Todd Helle is our new vice-chair,
Nancy Bierenga is our new secretary, and Dave Gingras
continues as treasurer. With Donna Lachniet, Wilmer
Cullen, Ron Haase and Mary Tobin completing the team,
we couldn’t find a better, more skilled and dedicated group
of professionals on whose wisdom to rely. |
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