December PCSBV Newsletter 2023

TOWN OF CANMORE Mayor's Volunteer Celebration

Volunteer Appreciation Awards for our PCSBV Volunteers!

Lynn Cooper

As part of a local coffee group, Lynn’s husband saw many of his fellow members lose local connections with their social and hobby groups through their illnesses. They had to be transferred to Cochrane, Calgary, Okotoks, or Olds and their partners and friends could no longer drive to visit them. Lynn found it heartbreaking that these locals had to leave their home in the mountains to receive specialized care. Because of this, Lynn was a founding member of the Palliative Care Society of the Bow Valley (PCSBV) and started the organization with a group of other local volunteers in 2014. She contributed many volunteer hours in obtaining society status for PCSBV in 2016 along with developing bylaws for the society. Lynn has 20 years of nursing in Obstetrics and public health in the Northwest Territories before retiring in Canmore. Throughout her career she observed that dying patients don’t die well in hospitals as the goal of these facilities is to recover and go home. She also noticed that it’s not fair to healthcare practitioners and patients to be subject to one type of hospital setting. In healthcare there are many types of clients and patients, such as clients with a palliative diagnosis or clients who are experiencing the birth of their child, which require very different care needs. She wanted to bring the Bow Valley together to make this spectrum of healthcare known and that specialized care for palliative patients is needed in the Bow Valley. Lynn’s main contribution through her volunteer work was creating PCSBV and getting this message of local palliative care known in the Bow Valley. Through her volunteer work with PCSBV she was instrumental in establishing PCSBV as a charitable society to fundraise for local palliative care and build awareness for the importance of a hospice in the Bow Valley. In June 2023 her dream and efforts have come to fruition as approval of the hospice building and land use has been granted! Lynn has had a positive experience in her research and through the connections she made during the establishment of PCSBV. She has had a huge amount of help to make this all happen with the support of many other volunteers on the Board of directors, nurses, doctors, in particular the Foothills Country Hospice Society in Okotoks and Dr. Eric Wasylenko. If you have met Lynn, you know how special she is and what a gift she is in our community, we are lucky to have her! Lynn’s passion for lifelong learning, positivity through adversity, and enthusiasm for life is infectious. She currently volunteers with PCSBV as a client care volunteer and through mountain cabin quilters guild.

Congratulations to these outstanding volunteers! We are proud to recognize their contributions in the community and within our organization. They embody excellence in volunteerism and are contributing factors to personal wellbeing and the quality of life to the Bow Valley community. We thank them for their volunteer dedication.

Julie Hamilton

Since 2017 Julie has been a volunteer with the Palliative Care Society of the Bow Valley (PCSBV). In 2020 Julie stepped up even further for PCSBV and wholeheartedly put herself to work for 3 years as board chair. In this volunteer role, she built many relationships that forged the way to where PCSBV is today. Because of Julie, the dream of a hospice building in Canmore is a reality and she has committed countless hours to promoting and researching palliative care for the Bow Valley. She has had, and continues to have, humble and purposeful discussions to communicate an educated understanding of why a hospice building is needed locally. Building philanthropic relationships for PCSBV is one of Julie’s passions, and because of her volunteer work in this area, PCSBV has strong relationships with our valued donors, who support our programs and fundraising efforts for the hospice. Julie also dedicated time to speaking publicly on many occasions for PCSBV and stood by other dedicated supporters at the TOC town hall about the hospice land in 2022. This town hall was an important step in land use decisions for the hospice building. All in all, Julie selflessly volunteers to build a more compassionate community with a well-rounded local understanding of palliative care and how important the palliative journey is for those that travel it along with their loved ones. Julie continues to volunteer for PCSBV as the hospice campaign chair and when she’s not volunteering, she is an avid golfer, skier, and photographer.

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