Meet Our Volunteers!
Our highly trained and committed volunteers are the heart and hands of Desert Valley Hospice Society. We value all kinds of skill-sets: we truly believe that if you care about hospice palliative care, we can use your unique talents and skills! Our volunteers come for diverse backgrounds and experiences, and support our Society in all kinds of ways. Whether you have a heart and desire to be trained as a volunteer or whether you'd like to work with the Society in a non-client role like fundraising, public relations, program development, etc., we welcome you to work alongside us!
Each and every one of our volunteers deserves to be celebrated and appreciated for his or her efforts. That is what this page is all about! Welcome to the ‘Meet Our Volunteers' profile where you can get to know some of the quiet heroes that make our organization great!
Each and every one of our volunteers deserves to be celebrated and appreciated for his or her efforts. That is what this page is all about! Welcome to the ‘Meet Our Volunteers' profile where you can get to know some of the quiet heroes that make our organization great!
An Interview with Donna Kelso
|
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I moved from Ontario to Oliver in 2001 and then to Osoyoos in 2005. I was married to John for 37 ½ years and have been a widow for almost 13 years. I have two grown daughters and three grandchildren. In my ‘past life’ I did secretarial/clerical work as well as assist my husband with his ‘fisheries’ field work. I currently work on an ‘on-call’ basis for Edward Jones in Oliver. I am a member of the Kiwanis Club of Osoyoos, the Kiwanis Club of Cascadia, Beta Sigma Phi sorority and am a volunteer with the Osoyoos Concert Series. I have held a variety of positions in these organizations. I very much enjoy travelling and am willing to go almost anywhere. Some of my most memorable trips were a European River Cruise; Peru (Machu Picchu) and Africa. How did you get involved with DVHS? I became involved with Desert Valley Hospice Society when I took their volunteer training in March/April 2015. How have you served within the Society? I was just getting into this volunteer capacity when I lost a close friend in July 2015 and backed away for a few months. In November 2015 I was asked to serve on the DVHS Board and am now going into my second year on the Board. I have been involved over the past year with several of the special events/fundraisers for the Society. What has been most rewarding / most challenging? It has been wonderful this year to see more media coverage about the Society and our programs but, on the other hand, many in the community are still unaware of what we offer. We are trying to remedy this. What message would you have for our communities about the work of DVHS? The DVHS mission states “we support and facilitate the provision of hospice palliative care and end of life services for people in the Oliver and Osoyoos area”. I’m sure we all remember hearing the line “many hands make light work”. We are happy to welcome a number of new volunteers who recently completed the volunteer training but we can always use more. We also need volunteers to help with special events and fundraisers. Our fundraisers like the ‘Hike for Hospice’ in May and the ‘Celebration of Caring Hands’ in November, help to financially support our on-going programs. Does anyone have ideas for new fundraisers? Favourite quote or saying: Shortly after my husband died I came across the quote “What NOW? Not, what IF!” This quote really spoke to me at that time and I still have it on my fridge today. We can’t change what has happened in the past, we have to move forward from here. This is what we are doing at DVHS – moving forward from where we are today and trying to continually improve the services we provide. |