Each year the Delaware Valley Chapter staff members nominate and select volunteers who they think perform exemplar service to the chapter. Here are the 2007 winners!
DELAWARE
John Panico
John Panico has worked with the Delaware Branch office for over six years. He started with the Delaware Men’s Support Group and has assisted with community health fairs. John also, serves the public on the chapter’s telephone Helpline. John is always willing to do any task…. clerical work, physical labor or even stuff envelopes! John is a Memory Walk Team Captain, his team has over 50 walkers. In 2006 he, and his team, raised $9,000. Also in 2006, John was on the Delaware Golf Committee bringing five corporate sponsors and countless advertisers on board. In addition, he personally organized the majority of the volunteers for the golf event! When John is not caring for his wife, or battling his own cancer, he faithfully attends chapter events in all three states.
Marie Henriques
Marie Henriques is a former Rhode Island Chapter volunteer, and has been volunteering in Delaware for the past four years. She is a member of the Rehoboth Memory Walk Committee and arranges days off from her work to attend Walk planning meetings. As co-chair of the Memory Walk Prizes and Raffles Committee, Marie obtained over 75 items that helped to raise the level of the Rehoboth Walk income. She is a member of the Milford Center Memory Walk Team, which raised over $8,000 this year. For the past two years, Marie has coordinated all 52 Rehoboth Walk volunteers and has managed all the “day-of” volunteer logistics at the Walk. She is invaluable and the chapter really benefits because of her organizational skills and talents.
NEW JERSEY
Joyce Gilette
Joyce, a Virtua nurse, became involved with the Chapter when her father entered the rehabilitation center in which is in employed as an Alzheimer’s patient. Because of this experience, she immediately joined the Virtua Memory Walk committee, and soon took the leadership role as the Captain of the team. Joyce has worked tirelessly as the Prize Chair for the Atlantic City Memory Walk. She solicited donations from local businesses and has also been known to spend her own resources to ensure the success of the prize raffle. Joyce is also an active Public Policy Advocate for the Delaware Valley Chapter. She participates in the chapter’s annual the bus ride to Washington DC for the National Alzheimer’s Association’s “Day on the Hill ”,visiting her legislators to gain support for increased funding for research and programs and services. Her enthusiasm is contagious. Her heart is enormous, and when commenting on asking for support, she says with humor “Hey – the least they can say is YES!”
Mary Hanna
Mary Hanna is an extraordinarily dedicated office volunteer. She works in loving memory of her late husband. Mary is warm, kind and loving. She has a strong sense of compassion, a deep level of caring and overwhelming goodness.
Mary handles clerical jobs with ease and grace. She helps the chapter by arranging Speakers Bureau appointments, and in planning the S. Jersey Annual Caregivers’ Educational Conference, Memory Walk and the Golf Tournament. A gifted and talented volunteer Helpline Specialist, Mary’s firsthand caregiver’s experience enables her to empathize with others who are coping with the challenges of dementia as they provide care to a loved one. She never seeks praise or attention – Mary is an unsung hero.
Melinda Lodge
Melinda has facilitated a monthly caregiver Support Group for more than 5 years! Her approach to facilitating is unique and her creative approach is attractive to family caregivers which makes her special Support Group very exciting. Under Melinda’s leadership, her Support Group has evolved as the Caregiver Café which features a monthly dinner meeting that eases caregivers into a social setting. This model of care allows members to share feelings, and care tips, in a natural setting. The word of her success has spread, and other South Jersey groups have adopted her Caregiver Café model! Melinda is also a well respected member of the dementia care community and speaks on behalf of the chapter at many S. Jersey community educational programs.
PENNSYLVANIA
Gary Radin
Gary facilitates the Adult Children of Early Onset Support Group. This is a specialized monthly support group designed to meet the unique needs of caregivers who may not find comfort in a traditional group. Gary’s group is made up of the adult children, in their 20’s and 30’s, whose parent(s) are experiencing memory loss issues. The members of Gary’s group have different needs than those of an adult child who are in their 50’s or 60’s. Gary’s experience as a caregiver has enabled him to bring, both, compassion and wisdom to the group’s participants and this eases the caregivers and helps them to feel they are not alone. In addition to his contribution to the chapter via the Support Group program, Gary, annually, designs and donates the elaborate sets that adorn the stage at the chapter’s prestigious Chocolate Symphony Spring Sensation event. Every year, Gary works countless hours before the big event, and on the “day of” the Spring Sensation, to make it truly memorable, successful and sensational!
Beverly Thompson
Bev Thompson began volunteering for the chapter, nine years ago, as a co-facilitator for one of the chapter’s first African-American specialized support groups. This group continues to meet monthly, after all this time, because of her warmth and also because of the effort that she and her co-facilitator put into the quality of the content of the group discussions. Bev has worked as member of the chapter’s Multicultural Outreach Advisory Committee to ensure that the needs of the community are being met. She is a founding member of the MLK Committee, helping to, annually, honor direct service workers. Bev served on the Delaware Program and Services Committee for 4 years and was co-chair of the Delaware Education Conference sub-committee from 2000-2003. As a member of the Delaware Valley Chapter’s Speaker’s Bureau, she also helps to educate the community on all aspects of memory loss, and has presented at the Delaware Education Conference.
Join us in helping to create a world without Alzheimer's. Take a look through the photo gallery and find what peaks your interest. Then, click on the "volunteer opportunities" tab to the left to learn more about all the positions . Please call our Volunteer Services at (215) 561-2919 during business hours if you have questions!
Advocates
Health Fair Representative
Helpline Specialist
Memory Walk Fundaisers
Museum Tour Escort
Speakers Bureau
