For patients who depend on walkers and wheelchairs to get around, the details of daily living can be daunting. Imagine the challenge of trying to maneuver with walker or wheelchair, while also managing packages or other personal belongings. In working with these patients, Carol Fortier, RN, Imaging Services/ Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter Services (PICC), recognized an opportunity to help by making their burdens a little easier to manage. Carol organized an easy-to-join volunteer program called “Sew and Go” to create specialty cloth bags for patients using wheelchairs and walkers.
Carol picked a date and time that allowed employees on all shifts at EMMC to participate if they wanted to, created signs to advertise the volunteer activity, supplied most of the materials needed (sewing machines, ironing boards, fabric, and cutting tables), solicited fabric donations, arranged for the meeting space, and brought together a group of EMMC employees and other volunteers from our community to construct these specially designed bags. Once they were complete, Carol delivered them to Ross Manor and EMMC’s Maine Rehab Outpatient Center
Thanks to Carol’s forward thinking, “Sew and Go” was a great success, bringing together people in need with people who want to help—to the benefit of both!
Carol has shown tremendous caring for patients and coworkers and lived several of EMMC’s Caring Behaviors. For her insight and thoughtfulness, Carol has been awarded a Splash by her co-workers, EMMC’s highest honor.
The Moral of the Story:
“If we always do what we've always done, we will get what we've always got.”
~Adam Urbanski
“Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
An ocean wave crashing on the rocks does not intend to call attention to itself, but a splash of such power and beauty is worthy of notice.