“I always wanted to be a volunteer,” Megi Celaj said. “After realizing how many people were isolated during the COVID-19 pandemic I decided this was the perfect time to start.” Megi recently joined Crossroads Hospice & Palliative Care in St. Louis as a Volunteer. To start, her volunteer work is virtual.
“A poster child” for the volunteer companion position is how Volunteer Manager Tiffany Fuller of Crossroads Hospice & Palliative Care in Oklahoma City describes Jinx Hudson.
“This is something I was meant to do,” Diana Searls said. “I just knew it.” Diana volunteers as a companion to four patients receiving end-of-life care from Crossroads Hospice & Palliative Care in Dayton. She visits with each patient three times a month and sees a fifth patient in an as-needed, respite capacity.
Bob Norton knows how to move. As a Volunteer with Crossroads Hospice & Palliative Care in Cleveland, the accomplished ballroom dancer shares his lifelong love of movement and music with patients receiving end-of-life care. Bob volunteers as a companion visiting one-on-one with patients.
To complete her Graduate Certificate in Gerontology, interning full time for a full school year was a requirement. With a budding interest in end-of-life care, Anne Marie McGinnis was placed at Crossroads Hospice & Palliative Care in Philadelphia, a provider she “hadn’t known about.” Her internship was considered volunteering because it was unpaid service.
Patty Bucy has volunteered for Crossroads Hospice & Palliative Care in Northeast Ohio diligently once-a-week for four hours for more than four years. All of Patty’s time is spent in the office assisting with administration and after 31 years as a public-school teacher, that suits Patty just fine.
