The Dorchester General Hospital Auxiliary held its general meeting and annual awards luncheon on November 12, 2019. The event celebrated a total of 13,265 hours contributed to the Auxiliary and its programs that benefit UM Shore Medical Center at Dorchester.

Members of the Auxiliary recognized for achieving service milestones are:

• For 250 Hours: Halyna Pagano and Chris Paisley
• For 500 hours: Michelle Mitchell and Clara Mae Stephens
• For 250 and 500 hours: Fran Strohmer
• For 1000 hours: Becki Herbert, Suzette Stitely and Peggy Warner
• For 2000 hours: Patti Blankley, Joy Loeffler and Barbara Weiss
• For 3000 hours: Lucy Phillips and Laura Schultz
• For 7000 hours: Nancy Duvall and Mildred Lewis
• For 8000 hours: Barbara Lipe

Becki Herbert was also honored as Robin Hood Shop’s “Volunteer of the Year” for the work that she does for the Robin Hood Shop and the Dorchester General Hospital Auxiliary Board of Directors.

“Becki comes in whenever she gets the call from The Robin Hood Shop that we are short on volunteers, need help in the back of the shop, or just simply answers the phone for help,” says Catherine Gullion, manager of the Robin Hood Shop. “She has stepped up in several ways and we can rely on her as a go-to-person for us to bounce ideas.”

Photo: Shown at the Dorchester General Hospital Auxiliary annual awards luncheon are UM SMC at Dorchester executive director Penny Pink (fourth from left) and Auxiliary members honored for achieving service milestones: Lucy Phillips, Michelle Mitchell, Barbara Weiss, Nancy Duvall (Dorchester Auxiliary president), Barbara Lipe, Fran Strohmer, Suzette Stitely, Clara Mae Stephens, Laura Schultz, Halyna Pagano, Becki Herbert, Patti Blankley and Joy Loeffler (Auxiliary 2nd vice President. 

“The Auxiliary continues to be a strong force in the advancement of health care for Dorchester County residents through the hard work of its volunteers,” says Penny Pink, executive director, UM Shore Medical Center at Dorchester. “Through the Robin Hood Shop and the Hospital Gift Shop, they raise funds that help purchase equipment and advanced health care technology, which directly benefits patient care.”

The Dorchester General Hospital Auxiliary raises funds to support programs, services, equipment and patient care at UM Shore Medical Center at Dorchester. Fundraising efforts include sales from the Robin Hood Shop, located at 416 High Street in Cambridge, and the Hospitality Shop, located on the first floor of the hospital. To learn more about volunteer opportunities with the Auxiliary or additional ways to support the organization, call 410-228-0091.

As part of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS), University of Maryland Shore Regional Health is the principal provider of comprehensive health care services for more than 170,000 residents of Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. UM Shore Regional Health’s team of more than 2,200 employees, medical staff, board members and volunteers works with various community partners to fulfill the organization’s mission of Creating Healthier Communities Together.

The public is invited to an afternoon of free bowling from 3 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 8 at Easton Bowling Center as part of Talbot Goes Purple.

This is the second time the bowling center has hosted a free afternoon of bowling for Talbot Goes Purple (TGP), with alcohol sales again suspended during the event. Shoe rental will also be free and the snack bar will be open and selling soft drinks, snacks, sandwiches and pizza.

“I thank Talbot Goes Purple and its partners for their critical work of raising awareness and getting help to those who need it,” said James Howard, owner of the bowling center. “Everyone is welcome at this event and the staff at Easton Bowl and I are proud to be able to provide a family-friendly space to get the message out.”

Talbot County Sheriff Joe Gamble will attend the event and briefly talk about Talbot Goes Purple’s recent efforts and discuss ways people can take a stand against substance abuse in our communities. Free Talbot Goes Purple youth-sized shirts and other fun stuff also will be available during the event.

Easton Bowling Center is located at 101 Marlboro Avenue in Easton, suite 39. Visit www.eastonbowl.com for more information about hours, specials and events.

As a substance use prevention initiative, TGP focuses on educating students about the dangers of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs, and works toward preventing kids from beginning to use these substances in the first place. The program supports students with various evidence-based activities and messages that help them stand up against substance abuse.

As the nation grapples with this staggering opioid crisis, TGP continues to focus on prevention, for which benefits are recouped in the future. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, substance abuse costs our nation more than $600 billion each year. Yet, every dollar spent on in-school prevention programs saves our society $18, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

An initiative from the Talbot County Sheriff’s Office and Tidewater Rotary, in partnership with Talbot County Public Schools, Saints Peter & Paul School and the Mid-Shore Community Foundation, Talbot Goes Purple empowers our youth and our community to ‘Go Purple’ as a sign of taking a stand against substance abuse.

More information about Talbot Goes Purple is available at www.talbotgoespurple.org. Find us on Facebook @TalbotGoesPurple or contact us at talbotgoespurple@gmail.com.

Talbot Goes Purple is a component fund of the Mid-Shore Community Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization – donations to which are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.

On November 14^th, Compass Regional Hospice was recognized as Nonprofit of the Year at Chesapeake Charities’annual Celebration of Charity Luncheon. They were nominated and chosen for providing exemplary hospice care and grief support services in Caroline, Kent, and Queen Anne’s counties, and for their visionary leadership and commitment to excellence.

Staff, board members, and supporters of Compass Regional Hospice attended the award luncheon hosted at Chesapeake Bay Beach Club. Chesapeake Charities noted, “through the collective efforts of a core group of dedicated community leaders, Compass Regional Hospice has been able to add facilities, hire staff, and develop new programs to meet the growing needs of the community.”

Photo: From left to right: Mark Freestate, Capital Campaign Committee member; Kathy Deoudes, CRH Board Chair; Heather Guerieri, CEO; Teresa Baumann, CRH Board Vice Chair; Paula Warner, CRH Board Secretary; Janice Feeley, CRH Board member; Tom Helfenbein, CRH Board member.

Mark Freestate, long-time supporter and Capital Campaign Committee member, presented the award. He acknowledged Mildred Barnett, founder of Hospice of Queen Anne’s, and credited her for identifying the need for hospice care in our community, and initiating a program that has continued to serve for nearly 35 years. Chief Executive Officer Heather Guerieri has been with Compass Regional Hospice for over 12 years, and accepted the award on behalf of Compass. Guerieri said “there are so many wonderful causes to support in our region, many of which are made possible with the backing of Chesapeake Charities. We are honored to be singled out and recognized as Nonprofit of the Year, and very grateful for your continued belief in our mission.”

Compass Regional Hospice was formed in 1985 by a group of caring volunteers who recognized the need for compassionate end-of-life care in Queen Anne’s County. It has since evolved to a fully-licensed, community-based nonprofit serving hundreds of patients per year in the Caroline, Kent, and Queen Anne’s counties. Guerieri was quoted, “we’re privileged to be considered a valued resource during difficult times—for those coming to terms with a terminal diagnosis, those that have lost a loved one under tragic circumstances, and those struggling to support their ageing parents.”

Compass Regional Hospice

Since 1985, Compass Regional Hospice has been dedicated to supporting people of all ages living with a serious illness, and those learning to cope following the death of a loved one. Today, the organization is a regional provider of palliative care, hospice care, and grief support in Queen Anne’s, Kent, and Caroline counties. Whether serving their patients in private residences, skilled nursing facilities, or Compass’ residential centers in Centreville and Chestertown, staff and volunteers are guided by their mission to provide comprehensive and compassionate care. Grief support services are offered to families of all patients, as well as to children and adults in the community who are grieving the loss of a loved one. Compass Regional Hospice is a fully licensed, independent, community-based nonprofit organization certified by Medicare and the state of Maryland, and accredited by the Joint Commission. It is affiliated with the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and the Hospice & Palliative Care Network of Maryland. For more information about Compass Regional Hospice, call 443-262-4100 or visit compassregionalhospice.org.

The 33rd annual “Light A Candle Remembrance Ceremony,” for anyone who has been touched by the death of a child of any age, will be held Tuesday, December 3, 7 p.m., at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral on Goldsborough Street. Parents, grandparents, siblings and friends are encouraged to join in this ceremony to honor and remember their loved one.

The remembrance service, presented by the Child Loss Support Group and Talbot Hospice, includes music by the Allegro Chorus, a special message by Rabbi Peter E. Hyman, prayer, inspirational readings, and candle-lighting. It concludes in the churchyard with families placing white bows on a memorial tree as their child’s name is read aloud. All are invited for light refreshments and fellowship immediately
following the service in Miller Hall which is located behind the church.

White bows will be available for all families that attend. Families are asked to come early if you would like to personalize a bow with your child’s name or a message. Throughout the holiday season, the lights and ribbons are a reminder that all of the children who have died are being remembered.

For more information about the ceremony and support services for bereaved parents, please contact Talbot Hospice Bereavement Coordinator Becky DeMattia at 410-822-6681 or bdemattia@talbothospice.org.

University of Maryland Memorial Hospital Foundation will host an informative seminar, Tax Strategies for 2019, on Saturday, November 23 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the Nick Rajacich Health Education Center at UM Shore Medical Center at Easton, 219 S. Washington Street.

Topics covered during this free workshop will include: the reduction of tax rates; changes to deductible expenses; 20% pass-through deduction; year-end planning strategies; and estate and trust changes. Guest presenters will be Darian L. Sump and Deborah Walsworth.

Darian Sump

Sump owns the Easton-based accounting firm of Sump & Associates, PC, which provides tax and accounting services to individuals, small businesses and nonprofits. He presently serves on the Board of Londonderry on the Tred Avon and is a member of the Tri-County Ruritan and a lifelong member St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in Cordova. A graduate of Shore Leadership and LEAD Maryland, Sump holds professional membership in the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Maryland Association of Certified Public Accountants.

Deborah Walworth

Walsworth is senior managing director in the Easton office of CBIZ MHM LLC & Mayer Hoffman McCann, PC. She has over 28 years of experience in public accounting and a diverse client base including individuals, businesses, trusts, estates and retirement plans. Certified in public accounting, financial planning and pension consulting, Walsworth provides tax compliance and consulting services, including financial and retirement benefit planning. She currently serves on the boards of the Talbot County Chamber of Commerce and For All Seasons, Inc.

This seminar is free and open to the public; pre-registration is recommended due to limited seating. For more information or to register for the seminar, please contact Janet Andrews, 410-822-1000, ext. 5792, or janet@umm.edu.

University of Maryland Shore Regional Health joins The Living Legacy Foundation (The LLF) in dedicating a rose for the 2020 Donate Life Rose Parade Float to honor the patients and their families who have given the gifts of life and hope as organ, eye, or tissue donors. The rose dedicated by UM SRH President and CEO Ken Kozel will accompany several others dedicated by The LLF as part of the Donate Life Float in the 2020 Tournament of Roses® Rose Bowl Parade. The parade will take place in Pasadena, Calif., on New Year’s Day with the theme “Light in the Darkness.”

Rose dedications enable hospitals to express their support and gratitude for those who have given the gift of life and also thank their staff, who make that gift possible by facilitating organ donations. The float will highlight the power of unity, light and love through organ, eye and tissue donation, and the many lives touched by donation. As the world’s most visible campaign to inspire organ, eye and tissue donation, The Donate Life Rose Parade® float inspires viewers to help the more than one million people nationally who are in need of organ, eye or tissue transplants each year.

L-R: Chris Wright, in-house Eastern Shore coordinator for the Living Legacy Foundation of Maryland, and Ken Kozel, president and CEO, UM SRH

UM SRH is passionate about saving lives. Each April, National Donate Life Month, the health care system joins The Living Legacy Foundation of Maryland in honoring patients and families who made the gift of life possible for others through eye, organ and tissue donation.

During the past 30 years, UM Shore Regional Health has facilitated 40 organ donations and 133 tissue donations.

Additionally, hospital staff in Cambridge, Chestertown and Easton all honor organ donors and their families through “Walks of Respect” and a unique local program, Quilts of Honor, which provides special quilts, created and donated by local quilting guild, Peggy’s Quilters, as gifts to families of organ donors.

A moving tribute that a patient’s family may elect, the Walk of Respect is provides honor and gratitude to a donor as he or she is making the final journey in the hospital. Hospital staff members line up to show their silent respect for a difficult decision as the patient passes by on the way to the operating room.

“It is a very moving reminder of our mission, purpose and calling,” Kozel says. “I am so moved by the power of what I witness during these Walks of Respect — the compassion, care, respect and the shared bonds between the patient, family and staff.”

The Quilts of Honor program began as an idea in fall 2018 and was implemented early this past spring by Shore Regional Health senior leadership and Peggy’s Quilters, a quilting group from Centreville that provided SRH with 12 quilts to give to organ donor patients and families in 2019.

Owned by Peggy Patterson, Peggy’s Quilters, a group of about 20 women who get together once a month to quilt at Peggy’s Quilting Center in Centreville. The group makes quilts and pillowcases for a number of charitable organizations, including those that provide health care to veterans in military hospitals. They also provide blankets for children in local hospitals through Project Linus, pillowcases filled with needed items for families who have lost their homes to fire or have been victims of crime, blankets for hospice patients and quilts for patients undergoing treatment at the Cancer Center in Easton.

From left are UM Intensive Care Unit staff nurse Patty Tindall, ICU Nurse Manager Alicia Fuchs, ICU staff nurse Dionne Walker, ICU Clinical Nurse Coordinator Jessica Caraker and ICU staff nurse Mary Anne Luschinski.

“Giving and charity is a big part of what quilters do,” says Shirley Seward, a member of Peggy’s Quilters member and family nurse practitioner with UM Shore Medical Group-Primary Care at Easton.. “Taking care of others and ‘wrapping around’ someone in need is important to us. When we found out about the Walk of Respect, we jumped at the chance to be a part of this unique tribute through the Quilts of Honor program.”

“We have been touched to see the beautiful work Peggy’s Quilters have done for those patients and families who have chosen to be organ donors at the end of life, helping others to have a second chance at life,” Kozel says. “Peggy’s Quilters has enabled us to provide a very tangible gift in memory and honor of a patient, which helps us share our gratitude and support with the family.”

The Living Legacy Foundation collaborates and facilitates donation and transplantation in area hospitals, provides support to donor families and educates Marylanders about the life-saving power of donation.

“Local donors save local lives,” Kozel says. “In Maryland, there are 3,353 people on the transplant waiting list. A single organ donor can save up to eight people and a single tissue donor may enhance the lives of up to 75 people. Of the 170,000 people we serve in our five-county community, an amazing 92,688 are registered as eye, organ and tissue donors. That’s just incredible. ”

“At Shore Regional Health, we are committed to patients from birth to death, and also to those who make the renewal of life possible for others,” Kozel says. “We support and stand behind the families and loved ones of these patients who have selflessly donated life so that others may have a second chance at it.”

Now in its 17th year, the Donate Life Rose Parade Float is the centerpiece of a national effort to reach a broad audience with the simple, life-giving message that organ, eye and tissue donation saves and heals lives. Nationally, 113, 222 people are in need of a life-saving transplant. Register today to become an organ, eye or tissue donor by visiting DonateLife.net.

iFrog Digital Marketing recently set up collection containers in its Easton office for its staff and visitors to donate to the Clark Comprehensive Breast Center at University of Maryland Shore Regional Health in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. iFrog Digital Marketing team members donated $500 to benefit equipment and services at the Breast Center. “Supporting Breast Cancer Awareness during October was something that our team felt passionate about and we wanted to make sure we gave back to our local community,” says iFrog digital analyst Jamie Marvel. “We couldn’t be happier to give back to the Clark Comprehensive Breast Center and are thankful for all that they do when it comes to treatment, education and patient support.”

Pictured, from left, are F. Graham Lee, vice president, Philanthropy, UM Shore Regional Health; Amy Lowe, development assistant, UM Memorial Hospital Foundation of Shore Regional Health; Kyle McCracken, chief product officer for iFrog Digital Marketing; Dr. Roberta Lilly, medical director, Clark Comprehensive Breast Center at UM Shore Regional Health; Brittany Krautheim, nurse practitioner, Clarke Comprehensive Breast Center at UM SRH; Jeanie Scott, manager, Oncology Services, UM SRH; and iFrog Digital Marketing team members Dorian Mitchell, Jamie Marvel, Michael O’Connor, Travis Belt, Chelsea Lindner, Jaclyn Langwost, Sarah Natovitz, Morgan Dailidenas, Sarah Bulgaris, Erin Williamson, Teri Bildstein, Robb Falkenheimer, Audrey Wozny and John Perkinson.