The best things in life are not the gifts you receive, but rather the gifts you are able to give.

The 59 volunteers at Visiting Nurse Association and Blue Water Hospice understand that principle better than most.

“When someone is dying, they can teach you so much,” said BWH volunteer Bobbie Umlauf of East China.

VNA/BWH is thankful for its volunteer corps and this year celebrates National Volunteer Week April 7 to 13.

“Our volunteers are the backbone of our organization,” said Jessica Martin, RN, BSN, director of hospice at VNA/BWH, including the VNA/BWH-owned Blue Water Hospice Home in Marysville. “They are community members who provide our patients and their families with dignity, respect and compassion during the most difficult of times. We are grateful for their dedication to our agency.”

Volunteers at VNA/BWH help patients and their families cope with end-of-life care in hospice; they provide assistance with Alzheimer’s and dementia patients in the VNA/BWH Adult Day Program; and clerical/administrative work in the office.

Umlauf, who retired from the automotive industry, has been a volunteer since 1996, said she felt a calling to service after her father passed away. “You don’t realize how many people come forward to help you out,” she said of that difficult time.  I wanted to help others through such a difficult time. I waited a few years, and then started volunteering.”

BJ Swarts of Lakeport is a retired volunteer who was among the very first BWH volunteers, having completed the first BWH volunteer training in 1982.

“Back then, we did everything,” she said. “We scrubbed the house and we fixed the meals. Now, volunteering is more handholding and talking to patients.”

Swarts said she became a hospice volunteer in order to help lift her out of depression.

“I had four deaths in my family in a year, one right after the other, including my baby that I was carrying,” she said. “I was depressed and I knew I needed to do something that would make other people feel better, so I volunteered. And you know what? It worked.”

Umlauf and Swarts both noted that working in a hospice setting is not, in fact, a depressing thing to do.

“I gave a lady her last dance,” said Umlauf. “She wanted to dance, so we got her out of bed and we danced. That is something to feel good about. The people that work here, they are all good people and we all have fun, even though it can be sad sometimes.”

Volunteers are treated like family by many patients, and they bring closure to their experience by attending funerals and sharing their grief with the families.

“The family appreciates what we are able to do,” said Swarts. “It’s like it’s your grandmother lying in that bed.”

She also noted, with a chuckle: “I usually find that people die the way that they lived…if they had a sense of humor in life, they die with their sense of humor. If they were a grumpy old person, they die a grumpy old person.”

Umlauf noted that some people have no family to come visit.

“But someone’s got to take care of them, and they will consider you a family member, and you might be all they have.

“The whole thing is very rewarding,” she said. “If you can hold someone’s hand when they are dying, and they don’t have anyone else, that is rewarding.”

Both women noted that volunteers are needed for many positions at the hospice home and volunteers do not need to interact with patients if they do not wish to. “You don’t need to see patients,” said Umlauf. “You can do kitchen work, cleaning, there are all kinds of volunteer opportunities. There are more opportunities than people realize. We have pet therapy, we’ve had music therapy. We need people to help with fundraisers and decorating and clerical work.

“We’ll find a job for you.”

Volunteers all receive training from VNA/BWH. Volunteers are needed to help with the following tasks, among others:

• Provide companionship, a listening ear, and practical assistance
• Befriend patients by sharing hobbies, reading to them and offering emotional support
• Help caregivers, do light housekeeping or yard work, and sitting with patients to give caregivers a respite/break.
• Provide support and reassurance to family members
• Greet visitors at the front desk
• Assist in preparing /serving meals and snacks
• Provide companionship to patients, which might also involve reading out loud, or writing a note
• Provide clerical assistance such as data entry, mailings and photocopying
• Assistance with fundraising activities
• Assembling patient information packets

by greatlakeswoman

For more information about volunteering at the Blue Water Hospice Home, contact Visiting Nurse Association and Blue Water Hospice Volunteer Coordinator Heidi Benner at 810-388-6100, extension 1100, or visit the VNA/BWH website at https://vnabwh.org.