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Scene & Heard - Filling A Need: Gang honors those who help hospice
Ed Brown Photo
Gregg Jamback (left) speaks with Jamie Huss and Diane Spaugh at the meeting.
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Published: April 7, 2009
The Back Porch Gang got together again Thursday night to look back at the 30 years that have passed since they started talking about the need for end-of-life care in Winston-Salem. This time, quite a crowd joined them.
The "back porch" on Thursday night was Forsyth Country Club, where about 250 people gathered for the 2009 annual meeting of the Hospice & Palliative Care Center. The program honored the center's founders and history, focused on the work of the present and started a capital campaign to raise money to add 10 beds to the facility.
Jeff Howard, the chairman of the foundation board, began the meeting by acknowledging two "distinguished" mayors, Mayor Allen Joines of Winston-Salem, and Mayor John Ferguson of Bermuda Run.
Howard acknowledged the various Circles of Care and explained the levels of contributions that they represent. He made special recognition of a group of Bermuda Run residents who, for the past 13 years, have held an annual event that raised $75,000 a year.
"They have set the bar so high for the organization," Howard said.
Forty staff members were asked to stand and received a rousing round of applause. Then Howard called the name that he said has been "synonymous with Hospice." He called JoAnn Davis to the podium.
Davis, the president and CEO, has been on the staff of Hospice for 24 years. "Medicare was approved in 1985, and that was the year they got me," she said, laughing.
"We started with one typewriter that the staff wheeled back and forth. Today we've got Facebook, Twitter and YouTube."
With the help of video footage of a conversation among several of the founders, Davis told the story of the Back Porch Gang, a "passionate group" that included Linda Scherl, the Rev. Gene Ryder, Ann Ryder, Jane S. Sugg, the Rev. George Bowman, Betsy Millar and Marguerite Howe Swanson and deceased members, Col. Carl Whitney, Jack Miller and Mildred Fogleman.
During a video, the crowd chuckled as a picture of a '70s version of Dr. Elms Allen was flashed on the screen. Dr. Allen, the vice president of medical affairs at Forsyth Medical Center, was Hospice's first medical director.
Before the program began, Allen reminisced about the early days when he worked in "two little offices" on the fourth floor in the former nurses' dormitory at the hospital. At that time, the organization was an all-volunteer operation with one paid employee.
"There was a true need," Allen said. As an oncologist, he said, he saw that need first-hand.
"We did everything we could do for the patient, but they still had needs" for end-of-life care, he said.
Dr. Kenneth Carlson was not one of the Back Porch Gang, but he joined the board shortly after it was formed.
"It's a tremendous and much-needed program," he said. "(End-of-life care) was a neglected area. When it became a Medicare benefit that was huge." He said that the involvement of the two hospitals was critical to the development of Hospice. "They really took hold of it. A lot has evolved since that time."
Carlson attended the meeting with his wife, Mary Jean Carlson.
Donald Schumacher, the president and chief executive of National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, was invited to the meeting to speak as a guest. When Davis introduced him, she joked that he had just returned from England and that she was "still waiting to see him curtsy."
Schumacher bowed deeply, called her the "Queen of North Carolina" and urged the crowd not ever to let her retire.
"You are so lucky to have this program," he began. "I visit 150 Hospice programs a year and yours is one of the top five in the United States."
The crowd erupted into applause.
"I've been in the hospice business for 34 years," he continued. "When you get bitten by the hospice bug, you can't get rid of it."
And as he wrapped up his short speech, he said, "You might think you're here helping somebody else, but on an unconscious level you're making sure that when your time comes, the help will be here for you. At some point in time, this will be a service that will come into your life."
Those closing remarks were the perfect segue for Dale "Dek" Driscoll, the chair of the governing board and Vital Connections capital campaign. Driscoll announced that John and Peggy Taylor will lead the campaign to raise a minimum of $4 million to add to the center. He said that during the "quiet period" of several months, in excess of $2 million has already been raised.
Driscoll called on Ellen Stockton Coble, the vice president of development, for an up-to-the-minute total. She was ready with the numbers: $2,039,000, or more than 50 percent of the goal.
Before the program began, Coble said she joined the staff a little less than a year ago and that she feels as if she has found her "home career."
"We're all on the same page with our mission," she said. "I will be here until they wheel me into the Kate B. Reynolds Hospice Home."
The evening ended with the presentation of two awards. Dr. Richard Stephenson, the vice president of medical services, presented the Kendrick Award, created in 2001 in memory of Dr. Bryant Kendrick of the Wake Forest University School of Medicine. The award is given each year to an individual or organization to recognize excellence and innovation in the quality end-of-life movement. This year's award was presented to Dr. Duncan Hite.
"Dr. Hendrick would be so proud of Hospice," Hite said.
Finally, JoAnn Davis presented the Founders Award, created in 1987 to recognize an individual or organization dedicated to Hospice and who has improved the quality of end-of-life care.
This year's award was presented to Sharon Murphy, the vice president of the Derrick L. Davis Forsyth Regional Cancer Center.
"This Hospice is a model for the rest of the country to follow," she said.
■ Have a social or charity activity that you would like Scene & Heard to share with Journal readers? E-mail features@wsjournal.com and type "Scene" in the subject line or call 727-7339. You may contact Leigh Somerville McMillan directly by e-mail at leigh@studiomcmillan.com.
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