Wayne Matuch never forgot the compassionate care his father received in 1980 when the then-new Visiting Nurse Service Hospice program helped him through his final days.
Three decades later, Matuch retired as Goodyear’s police chief and marched into hospice to sign up as a volunteer. Now he’s on the other side, offering his ear to stressed family members, sitting vigil with patients in their last hours, and conducting pinning ceremonies for veterans.
“I was so impressed with what they did for my family, I wanted to do that for someone else,” he said.
In recent months, the Akron Beacon Journal has been taking the mystery out of what it means to be a volunteer by offering a step-by-step guide for some Summit County organizations.
In previous stories, we explained how to get involved with Interfaith Caregivers, Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, Haven of Rest Ministries, Akron Children’s Hospital, International Institute of Akron, Junior Achievement, the Akron Zoo and the Akron-Canton Regional Food Bank.
Today: How to volunteer with hospice.
Matuch is one of 325 people who donate their time to the now-named Cleveland Clinic Akron General Justin T. Rodgers Hospice Care Center in Copley Township.
Last year, they put in 30,000 hours, many of them paying visits to patients in homes and nursing facilities throughout Summit, Stark, Wayne, Portage and Medina counties, as well as the 26-bed hospice center on Ridgewood Road.
“We say one hour a week can change two lives,” said Christine Hinman, manager of volunteer services. “Theirs and yours.”
Most of the volunteers don’t need to be convinced. Hinman estimates that 90 percent of them experienced hospice through the death of a loved one and wanted to return the favor.
Those with a recent loss are asked to wait at least one year before taking on roles that bring them into direct contact with patients.
“It can be emotional, and you’re supporting others going through a difficult time and that takes a lot of strength,” Hinman said.
But that’s OK. From a monthly club that makes crafts for food trays to a crew of volunteer gardeners, there are plenty of opportunities that don’t involve sitting with patients.
Signing up
Start by visiting http://www.vnsa.com/portal/page/portal/vnsa/volunteer and clicking on the link to the online application. Or call 330-668-4650 to have an application mailed to you.
For positions involving patient contact, a background check is required, and you’ll be asked to provide references. You’ll also have to take a TB test.
After submitting your application, expect a phone call and an invitation to a daylong orientation to cover things like privacy laws, communications skills, professional boundaries, ethics and meeting the staff. The next orientation will be 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on June 16.
Afterward, you’ll shadow an experienced volunteer for a couple of shifts or until you’re comfortable setting off on your own.
Among the volunteers are local musicians who offer to play in the great room, where easy chairs and a piano surround a central fireplace.
Because the center is on a natural wildlife preserve, a full-time gardener depends on 16 helpers to maintain the property, plant flowers and pull weeds.
Others contribute their computer skills, pet owners can join the “Caring Canines” therapy group, knitters and crocheters can create lap blankets, and hair stylists and manicurists routinely brighten someone’s week.
Volunteers also run the two annual fundraisers: the Light Up A Life holiday campaign and the Joyful Taste of Life food, beer and wine event.
And teens ages 15 to 17 are tapped to operate Camp Promise, a summer bereavement camp attended by 50 or more youngsters every year.
Hinman said one of her favorite programs uses volunteers to conduct pinning ceremonies of veterans who come under hospice care.
That sounded like an uplifting experience, so I asked to help at one, and that’s where I found myself last week.
Showing up
I had 48 hours notice of the ceremony. With many patients facing limited time, sometimes volunteers have to move faster than that. Two veterans pinned the previous week had already passed, Hinman told her volunteers.
I was introduced to Matuch, 71, of Barberton; Bob Budd, 68, of Cuyahoga Falls, and Tammie McGivern, 58, of Granger Township.
All three served in the U.S. Army and they were getting ready to honor one of their own, a fellow former soldier under his daughter’s care in West Akron.
Because hearing is the last sense to go, even unresponsive patients have perked up during the ceremony, Hinman said. Seemingly unconscious recipients have been known to raise their hand in a salute or mouth a “thank you,” surprising family who hadn’t seen movement in days.
“Sometimes I just let go and cry at these,” Matuch admitted as he gathered up a gift box filled with keepsakes and led McGivern, Budd and three hospice employees to two waiting cars.
Like Matuch, McGivern and Budd first experienced hospice while their fathers were dying. And like him, they made a beeline back to hospice in retirement, Budd a former truck driver for House of LaRose, McGivern a former federal employee for a security agency.
Budd has five years experience now, but the pinning ceremonies are as close as he gets to direct patient contact. He grew close to a patient he visited for a year before the man’s death, a loss he didn’t want to experience again. Now he’s content to give back by doing clerical and other office type work.
McGivern just completed her training last fall. She said she’s not sure she would have had the inner strength to witness people passing from this life if she hadn’t first experienced it with her parents.
“Sometimes you don’t know what you’re capable of till you just go through it,” she said. Now she just reminds herself: “It’s not about me. It’s about them, and I don’t think anyone should spend their final days alone.”
After a short drive, the two cars pulled up to the home of Robert Johns. Nearly 20 family members and neighbors of the 94-year-old Army veteran were still trickling into the home, eager to celebrate his service.
Daughter Diane Johns welcomed each as they came through the door and squeezed into a small living room that was filling with the smell of home cooking in the kitchen.
In a corner, Robert Johns quietly nodded his head at each greeter, occasionally lifting it when someone asked to take a selfie.
Johns served in Italy during World War II before going on to a career as a head chef at Akron’s Tangier restaurant, retiring in the late 1980s. Among those on hand to witness the pinning ceremony was Johns’ old boss, Tangier owner Ed George.
“We served 1,000 people a night, didn’t we?” George asked his old friend. “It was a great era.”
Hinman and her three volunteers conducted the ceremony. Matuch presented the gift box, including a crocheted blanket made of panels of red, white and blue flags. McGivern and Budd took turns speaking.
Then veterans in the room saluted and civilians covered their hearts as Matuch attached a commemorative pin to Johns’ shirt.
Diane Johns bid her guests to eat, drink and enjoy a sheet cake that thanked her father for his service. Thirty minutes after arriving, the hospice volunteers exchanged farewells and headed back to the center.
Matuch said he once lost a patient during a visitation, and he still mourns the loss of a man who had come to feel like a brother to him. But his spiritual beliefs make it easy to keep coming back.
“I know without a doubt they are going to a better place,” he said.
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/paulaschleis.