Take Care Volunteers

This month Take Care Private Duty Home Health Care and Take Care Advisor highlight a few staff members who have participated in our volunteering program “Take Care Gives Back.” Read about how some of the Take Care staff have individually taken their time to go out into the community to give back in their own way.

Jeanne Heere, Scheduling Supervisor, actively volunteers with Robbie, her son, and one of her Golden Retrievers, Zoe. Through the Humane Society of Sarasota County and Therapy Dogs Inc. Zoe, Robbie, and Jeanne successfully completed training so that Zoe would be accepted as a Therapy Dog. To date, they have visited Heartland North, Pines of Sarasota, and Plymouth Harbor. By taking Zoe into this environment it helps some residents recount memories of their past, providing socialization for all parties involved. It is a wonderful example of how small efforts have lasting effects. Jeanne enjoys volunteering as it is “stress-free time you have doing what you enjoy and love and giving to others is so amazing.”

Cathy McDaniel, Accounting Manager, visited Harbor Chase in Venice with her mother a few months back, and found the facility and staff to be very helpful and friendly. Cathy thought it would be a great place to volunteer. One Friday in November, Cathy was asked to volunteer her time assisting with the residents’ afternoon cocktail party. Part of the volunteering involved playing bridge with the residents, pouring drinks, and fixing trays. Cathy joined residents in a game of bridge.

There are various ways to help out in our community. Choose something you love, and there is likely a place for you. Helping out in small ways, makes a large impact. “I look forward to my next visit in January so that I can re-connect with some of my new found friends,” Cathy said. “I might even get better
at bridge.”

A recent article from The New York Times supports Take Care’s belief in the importance of volunteering and giving back. “There’s no question that it gives life a greater meaning when we make this kind of shift in the direction of others and get away from our own self-preoccupation and problems,” said Stephen G. Post, director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics at Stony Brook University on Long Island and a co-author of Why Good Things Happen to Good People (Broadway, 2007). “But it also seems to be the case that there is an underlying biology involved in all this.”