Chatham resident and hospice volunteer Lyn Rush was inducted into the June Callwood Award Circle of Outstanding Volunteers at the Hospice Palliative Care Ontario (HPCO) Conference recently held in Toronto.
The June Callwood Award was established in 1994 to acknowledge and thank outstanding hospice volunteers throughout Ontario. The award was named in honour of the late June Callwood who was a long-time advocate of hospice, a community activist, author and recipient of the Order of Canada.
“Volunteers give of themselves time and time again with no expectations to receive. Lyn Rush is one of those volunteers who goes above and beyond as a member of the board of directors and chair of the volunteer advisory committee for Chatham-Kent Hospice,” said Jessica Smith, executive director of Chatham-Kent Hospice, in a media release.
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Rush retired from the Chatham Kent Health Alliance, having worked in various roles. Her last position was co-ordinator of palliative/support care and oncology; a role she saw as a great privilege.
Since retirement, Rush has kept busy volunteering for several community organizations and helping out with her grandchildren as needed. Although she is busy, her desire to see palliative and end-of-life care grow in our community has never wavered.
“I am so honoured, but in all honesty, the award belongs to all the volunteers who have been working on making the hospice happen. It’s a group of volunteers who have brought us to this point,” Rush told The Chatham Voice. “There’s so much that goes into a hospice – the architect draws up the plans, the contractor builds it, but it takes the volunteers to fill the halls with warmth and compassion. The volunteers will be the backbone of the hospice and we wouldn’t be able to do it without them.”
Being a volunteer in the community since her retirement has been a labour of love, according to Rush, who truly believes you get so much more than you give.
“For me, volunteering has always given me a good feeling. People will say, ‘thank you for what you’ve done’, but I say, ‘no, thank you for allowing me to do it’,” Rush explained. “Someone gave me this quote by Kahlil Gibran, and it sums up perfectly how I feel about volunteering. ‘I slept and dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and saw that life is all service. I served and saw that service is joy.’”
As chair of the volunteer advisory committee, Rush gets to speak to with volunteers during training and makes sure they know how important their role is to the success of Chatham-Kent Hospice.
“Lyn handles all tasks with grace and humility making everyone around her feel her warmth and compassion. She is one of our unsung heroes and we are so glad to have her on our team,” Melanie Watson, volunteer co-ordinator at Chatham-Kent Hospice, said in a release.
