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Teen Volunteers

Being Grateful & Giving Back: The Wonderful Volunteers of Northern Westchester Hospital

October 22, 2017 by Janine Crowley Haynes

In the spirit of giving thanks and giving back, it’s only appropriate to shine a spotlight on volunteers who give their time, personal experience, and expertise. We turned to Northern Westchester Hospital (NWH) and their volunteer programs and met with six of these inspirational volunteers serving NWH and our community.

Director of Volunteer Services Ellen Muentener oversees approximately 250 volunteers at the hospital. From high school and college students to senior citizens, NWH volunteers are passionate about what they do. Volunteers enhance the lives of others without the need for fanfare. Yet with each individual I met, the overwhelming consensus was that volunteering gives them much more than they give. However, volunteering is not for the faint of heart. You have to be tough while being kind, emotionally strong while being compassionate, and tireless while being tested.

Aside from the obvious benefits, what makes an individual want to volunteer?

In an article in Psychology Today, Dawn Carr, MGS, PhD, lists five benefits to volunteering. One benefit, in particular, stands out–volunteering gives you a sense of purpose. Volunteers live longer too. Volunteering also helps you to step outside yourself and your own life challenges and gives you a fresh, new perspective.

Let’s meet just a few of these impressive NWH volunteers:

PHOTO BY CHAD KRAUS

Judy McGrath

Judy McGrath, is a 12-year volunteer and former president of Twigs-Thriftree Shop located at 449 Lexington Avenue in Mt. Kisco. Judy is a Chappaqua resident and an active member in the community including being involved with the New Castle Historical Society, the Chappaqua School Foundation, the PTA, and the Girl Scouts.

“I believe it’s so important to give back to the community,” says Judy.

Twigs of NWH was formed in 1945 and, currently, has 160 members split up into nine groups. However, its humble roots date back to 1887, where a small group would get together to hem hospital table napkins for Rochester City Hospital. The group started to grow, and Twigs groups began to crop up in hospitals all around the country.

Twigs is a not-for-profit organization set up exclusively to support Northern Westchester Hospital. “We are so fortunate to have such a great hospital right here in our community,” says Judy. Over the last 12 months, Twigs donated 78,500 volunteer hours. It’s impressive that a little thrift shop in Mt. Kisco could make such an impact benefiting the hospital. To date, Twigs has donated $3,300,000 to NWH. The shop offers a variety of items for sale like clothing, books, jewelry, household items, etc. In addition, Twigs volunteers put together layettes for the Prenatal Care Clinic that provides comprehensive care to underinsured and uninsured pregnant women in Westchester and Putnam Counties, helping to ensure healthy pregnancies and healthy babies. Twigs also provides unique items such as cough pillows and tray favors to patients during the holidays.

This year, Twigs presented a check to NWH for $100,000. Each of the following NWH programs will receive $25,000: The Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center (KHCC), where family caregivers find respite and support; The Bruce and Andrea Yablon Cancer Health and Wellness Program, created to empower patients diagnosed with cancer to live a healthy lifestyle in ways that powerfully touch mind, body and spirit; the Community Health Education and Outreach Program, which partners with schools and local groups to build a healthier community; and the Integrative Medicine Program, dedicated to enhancing patients’ health and wellness.

You can find a Twigs Serenity Garden inside the Cancer Health and Wellness Center and the Twigs Healing Garden outside the Emergency Department.

Each year, Twigs members get together and decide which areas and/or programs Twigs would like to support. Whether you volunteer, donate items to the shop, or shop at Twigs-Thriftree, you will be making your own generous contribution to NWH.


PHOTO BY CHAD KRAUS

Jo Cherubini

Jo Cherubini, at 83 years old and a 50-year Mt. Kisco resident, is a vibrant, tireless volunteer in the Westchester community. In addition to being a 20-year volunteer at NWH, Jo volunteers twice a week at the Rosary Hill Home, an end-of-life facility based in Hawthorne. She is also involved with the Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry.

At NWH, you can usually find her on Wednesdays at the front desk of the Wallace Pavilion, but she also takes on other roles. “I feel a volunteer should go where they are needed,” says Jo. Whether it’s helping with blood drives, stuffing envelopes, delivering greeting cards to patients, or making sure wheelchairs are accessible at the front entrance–Jo is on it. Working at the front desk is not without its challenges. “Typically when people walk into the hospital, it’s not on the best of circumstances…unless they’re visiting the maternity ward,” says Jo. “They need to be received and guided with patience,” she adds.

Jo with Ellen Muentener  PHOTO BY JANINE CROWLEY HAYNES

Jo is the recipient of the 2017 Mary B. Robbins Beacon of Light Award which is given by NWH to the volunteer of the year. In lieu of the personal gifts she would have received from NWH, Jo asked if it could be in the form of a monetary donation to be split up between two of her charities—Rosary Hill Home and the Mount Kisco Food Pantry.

“I love this hospital and its mission to provide quality care to the community,” says Jo. “The people who work here are open and receptive. It’s a family atmosphere and that makes for a pleasant experience,” she adds.

In addition to all of her volunteer activities, Jo finds the time to knit and crochet blankets for children with cancer. She’s made over 1,000 blankets so far. Jo has also made hundreds of hats for infants that have been born at NWH.

If you would like to donate some yarn for her projects, please feel free to leave it at the front desk of the Wallace Pavilion. She would greatly appreciate it.


PHOTO BY CHAD KRAUS

Idelle Skriloff

Idelle Skriloff volunteers at the Ken Hamilton Caregivers Center (KHCC) located in the Wallace Pavilion of the hospital. KHCC was founded by Armonk resident Marian Hamilton in loving memory of her husband, Ken Hamilton. Marian was the primary caregiver to her husband when he was sick. The experience was stressful and, at times, isolating. After her husband passed away, Marian founded the KHCC, the first in-hospital facility of its kind in the entire New York Metropolitan region. Named in memory of her husband and inspired by her experience caring for her husband through his illness, while juggling her role as a mother to two teenage daughters, gave her a firsthand understanding that hospitals are often not equipped to help caregivers in a meaningful way. With a vision to support family caregivers, Marian approached Northern Westchester Hospital. Since its inception, the KHCC has had over 60,000 family interactions, demonstrating the vast need for caregiver support.

For ten years, Idelle Skriloff has been one of over 30 volunteers at KHCC. “I wanted to do something meaningful to give back to the community,” she says. “At times, my husband and I have been patients at NWH, and we received such great care.” What makes Idelle well-suited for this particular type of volunteer work is her kind, compassionate spirit that comes along with being a retired special education teacher from Fox Lane. Idelle volunteers once a week seeking caregivers on the floor to engage in conversation and offer appropriate support as needed. “We let them know we are there for them if they have any questions or need information, and we invite them to the center to relax and unwind,” says Idelle. “Sometimes caregivers just need emotional support. Sometimes they need information and resources.”

KHCC’s volunteer training is intensive. Trainees will shadow a seasoned volunteer for three to six months and are also expected to make a long-term commitment to the center.

KHCC has extended their services with a ‘Stay in Touch’ program where volunteers reach out to caregivers after discharge via telephone. Idelle describes her volunteer experience as uniquely rewarding: “I am so grateful to have a hospital like NWH in our community. Volunteering gives me so much more than I give.”


PHOTO BY JANINE CROWLEY HAYNES

Joanna Cirasella

Joanna Cirasella, Briarcliff resident and a massage therapist at the Chappaqua Wellness Center, volunteers her time at NWH twice a week. She and her 10-year-old pet therapy Norfolk terrier, Mandy, make their rounds at the hospital. For Joanna, her mission is personal. She is a 5-year breast cancer survivor. Joanna wanted to give back to the hospital that took great care of her. “They’re like family to me,” says Joanna. Mandy and Joanna typically visit the Cancer Center, the Breast Institute, and the Women’s Imaging Center. They also make visits to the oncology inpatient units. “Mandy opens the door. Once you say to a patient ‘I sat in that same chair,’ a whole other dialogue happens.”

For her service, Joanna received the prestigious International Pet Therapy Team Planetree Award. In addition to visiting patients, Joanna is on the Cancer Patient Advisory Council, designed to be the voice of the patient by providing ongoing insight into actual patient and family experiences.

Joanna is also involved with NWH’s Living with Cancer Support Group. She’s held fundraising events at Le Jardin du Roi with proceeds going to the NWH Cancer Health & Wellness Program. Joanna is also an accomplished photographer. You can also find several of her photographs hanging in the Cancer Center.


PHOTO BY JANINE CROWLEY HAYNES

Sophie Peterfreund

Sophie Peterfreund, a Bedford Hills resident, has been volunteering in the Emergency Department at NWH for six years and was a member of the NWH President’s Junior Leadership Council during her sophomore, junior and senior years at Fox Lane. The President’s Junior Leadership Council is made up of high school students in Northern Westchester. PJLC members develop projects that are meaningful to them about health issues affecting their peers.

Whenever she is home, you can find her in the Emergency Department helping out at the security desk at NWH helping out at the security desk and checking in patients. She is passionate about the hospital and loves tapping into its spirit and energy. The fast-paced atmosphere of urgent care is well-suited to her particular skill set. “It may sound strange, but ever since I was young, I loved going to the doctor,” says Sophie.

Sophie is a junior at Stony Brook University and hopes to attend physician’s assistant school after she graduates. Sophie is also an EMT in her town.


If you’re interested in volunteering at NWH, please contact Ellen Muentener, Director, Volunteer Services emuentener@northwell.edu.

Filed Under: Armonk Cover Stories Tagged With: hospital, Northern Westchester Hospital, NWH, Teen Volunteers, volunteer, Volunteer Program', Volunteerism

Westchester Teens Step Up to Aid Syrian Refugees

March 5, 2017 by Kelly Leonard

Over 200 local teens from across Westchester County participated in a day of community service in honor of MLK Day in January. Thanks in part to a generous grant from UJA-Federation of New York in connection with the launch of its Time for Good volunteerism initiative, J-Teen Leadership spearheaded the Westchester-wide interfaith teen volunteer event to aid Syrian Refugees with the AFYA Foundation and Westchester County Youth Council. The teens’ work and the day, hosted by the the Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, took on even greater significance in the weeks that followed after the new U.S. president signed an Executive Order banning entry to the United States of refugees and immigrants from seven Middle Eastern countries including Syria.

In opening remarks on the day of service, Pam Wexler from the UJA noted, “It’s hard to know how to help in this situation and hard to get direct help when they’re so far away. Today there are 35 service projects going on throughout Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and Westchester. These times demand action.”

Danielle Butin, founder of AFYA, asked the students to think about what it would be like to be living the life of refugee, never going back home and what they would take. Butin shared that she had gone to Lesbos, Greece and saw refugees coming in, boat after boat, and asked them what they needed. One refugee answered, “We fled ISIS, we crossed the sea, no one in our family died, we need nothing.”

Butin emphasized to the volunteers, “Yours will be the last pair of hands to touch these supplies before they go to where they’re needed.” Butin also commented that participants “have to be a special kind of person to volunteer and not see the end point” of the goods and supplies going to those in need.

Teen volunteers spent the morning sorting and packing items delivered from collection sites around Westchester organized by teen collection ambassadors. Twelve pallets of donated goods included diapers, baby blankets and hats, combs, toothbrushes, toothpaste, bandages, Band-Aids, hand sanitizer, Bacitracin, Neosporin soap, feminine hygiene products, rain boots, office and school supplies.

The boxed supplies were scheduled to be air shipped to Syrian Refugees in Northern Iraq by the AFYA Foundation in partnership with the US Department of Defense. Community Service Certificates were provided for participating teens.

The J-Teen Leadership Planning Committee led by Co-Chairs Ethan Afran, Scarsdale High School junior, Jordyn Glantz, Horace Greeley High School senior, Aaron Hersch, Scarsdale High School senior and Hannah Malter, Byram Hills High School senior, ran the event. Together the four Co-Chairs realized the importance of taking initiative and didn’t want to just stand by and watch. In addition to sorting and packing supplies, the large group of teen volunteers made cards and wrote letters to the refugees.

Greeley senior Jordyn Glantz noted that while J-Teen holds an MLK Service Day every year this was the first time they were doing an event to help the Syrian Refugees. She was heartened by the large turn out of volunteers who were from all faiths throughout Westchester.

Byram Hills senior Hannah Malter emphasized that “advocating for those who don’t have a voice unites us all and makes our work that much more important.”

Carla Harding, a teen volunteer from the Westchester County Youth Council, noted in opening comments, “If MLK were here today, he’d be very, very happy to see the efforts you’re making.”

Dr. Georgette F. Bennett, from the Tanenbaum Center and Multifaith Alliance for Syrian Refugees, brought a spiritual aspect to the occasion quoting Leviticus 19:16, “Thou shalt not stand by idly while the blood of your brother cries out from the Earth” and added, “If we don’t help, we’re enabling the effect we fear the most and that is radicalizing. Public opinion is the only thing that’s going to change policy and that’s why it’s so important you young people are here especially because of your use of social media–get the message out, push back against anti-refugee rhetoric.”

This is the 11th year that teens from J-Teen Leadership turned out in force in an interfaith volunteer effort to encourage community building and connections across religious and societal lines in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Susie Stern, founder of Time for Good, encouraged the teen volunteers to “talk about this experience when you go home because you’re changing lives that have so little.”

For more info, visit www.ujafedny.org

Kelly Leonard is the founder and principal consultant of KLO Associates, LLC, a digital marketing boutique specializing in custom content strategy and influencer engagement for authors, publishers, local businesses and nonprofits. Previously she held senior management positions at Time Warner Book Group and Hachette Book Group.

Filed Under: Armonk Community Tagged With: J-Teen Leadership Committee, MLK Day, refugees, Syria, Syrian Refugees, Teen Volunteers, Westchester Teens

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