DWIGHT BEEBE will be honored Friday when he receives a Volunteers are the Heart of Hospice Award in Columbus. He was nominated by the Ashtabula County chapter of the Hospice of the Western Reserve for the statewide award.
Published November 08, 2009 09:07 am - From the business office to the bedsides of a dying patient Dwight Beebe has been a friend of Hospice for more than two decades.
Area man honored for his volunteer work with hospice
By WARREN DILLAWAY - Staff Writer Star Beacon
ASHTABULA — From the business office to the bedsides of a dying patient Dwight Beebe has been a friend of Hospice for more than two decades.
On Friday he will be honored with a Volunteers are the Heart of Hospice award during a special presentation in Columbus.
He is being honored by the Ohio Hospice and Palliative Care Organization after being nominated by local officials.
“I was very familiar with Hospice,” Beebe said of his work in the financial department of the Ashtabula County Medical Center that led him to volunteer work upon his retirement.
“I worked at the hospital for 16 years,” he said.
“The reason Ashtabula has a Hospice at all leads directly back to Dwight,” said Mary Pepperney, community facilitation coordinator of the Ashtabula County Hospice of the Western Reserve. She said he was an advocate for the program early in its development in this area when it was becoming Medicare certified.
“We had a grandson who needed Hospice care in Columbus so I became familiar with Hospice from the other side of the bed,” Beebe said.
Sue Druschel, coordinator of volunteers for the Ashtabula County Hospice of the Western Reserve, said Beebe has been an excellent volunteer for more than four years providing a variety of services to people during a difficult time in the life of a family.
She said there are about 130 volunteers working with families in Ashtabula County. “They do a variety of tasks,” Druschel said of people who sit with patients, do laundry, cleaning and just providing families with a break in the patient care process.
“It is almost like walking on holy ground,” she said.
Beebe said he doesn’t know how many patients he has worked with over the last four or five years but says he gets a lot out of the experience.
“What we do really is a gift. It is not a gift that we give. It is a gift we receive,” he said of the experience of helping someone through their last weeks, hours and minutes of life.
“It is a time that is very special,” Beebe said.
Druschel said Beebe provides a high quality of care to an individual that is dying. “He is a gentle giant beside them,” she said.
“He has genuine empathy. He is a man of integrity and I would trust him my own mother with him. He is one of the most humble people I have ever known,” she said.
MACHINERY & TOOLS SAFES- Large & small, Forklifts, extra forks, Pallet Jacks, air compressors, (1-20HP), complete torch sets, welding gass...>MORE
Cemetery Lots 2-lots Garden of Christus, Greenlawn. $400/both. 440-391-3795...>MORE
"WE NEED LAND!" Paying top prices for farms or acreage in OH, W. Virginia and PA. Call Bruner Land Co. at (740) 685-8138....>MORE
CARPET & MATTRESS SALE Carpet with pad installation $12.77 yd. FACTORY DIRECT Mattress sets $100 & up. BARTER HOUSE (440)964-7770...>MORE
SEASONED FIREWOOD FOR SALE Mixed Hardwoods. Cut & split approx 16” $225.00 cord (+) or Slab wood, cut $150.00 cord(+). Delivered within 15 miles of...>MORE
WANTED TO BUY Immediate Cash for unwanted items. Call for details 440-319-4274...>MORE
BUYING JUNK VEHICLES WE PAY SCRAP OR BETTER Budget Auto Parts, 6015 Woodman Ave. 992-1111...>MORE
Hayward pump (1-1/2 hp) & D.E. Filter for swimming pool, misc. pool access. $300 obo. 576-1585...>MORE
Print this story
Post to del.icio.us
