Teen wins award for volunteer work

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Paula Strunk, administrator at The Terrace Nursing and Rehabilitation Facility in Berea, remembers the first time she met Rebecca Croucher, then a painfully shy 10-year-old who had accompanied her mom, Beverly Satterfield, the facility's activity director, to an employee family day event.


"She was so shy, you could tell it was almost painful for her to be here," Strunk said. "It was clear she'd never been around people who were elderly and ill."

Fast forward three years, and somehow along the way, Croucher has shed her shyness to become an integral part of the facility's activity staff.


Last month, Croucher's more than 800 hours of volunteer service at The Terrace earned her the national Young Adult Volunteer of the Year award from the American Health Care Association. In 2007, she was named the Kentucky Association of Health Care Facilities Youth Volunteer of the Year, an honor that earned her a nomination for the national award.


"It was something that happened subtly," Strunk said. "First she was coming to volunteer one or two days a week, then it was three or four days, then it was the weekends, too. And every day in the summer. The more time she invested, the less it became about her and the more it became about serving others."


This past summer, Rebecca, now 13, accompanied her mom often from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. volunteering to help visit with residents, paint their nails or do their makeup, read with them, lead arts and crafts activities and throw monthly birthday and holiday theme parties.


She often brings either her own dog, Buttons, a dachshund, or another pet therapy dog, Charlie the Yorkie, to residents' rooms during her visits, she said.


She even coordinated a basketball shooting tournament event, brackets and all, in conjunction with the Berea College women's basketball team, that encouraged residents to shoot hoops for exercise, Strunk said.


"The patience and compassion she shows our residents, sitting with them and just holding their hand or brushing their hair, very few adults have that gift," said Strunk, who nominated Rebecca for the state and national volunteer awards. "In over 20 years of being a nurse, I've never seen anything like it."


"To see a young person her age putting in the number of hours that she has done at The Terrace is just remarkable," said Steve McClain, director of communications and membership development with the KAHCF. "Looking at her nomination, we thought she had a really strong chance at getting the national award."


McClain said he believes Rebecca is the first Kentuckian to receive one of the AHCA's national volunteer awards.


Rebecca, an eighth-grader at Berea Christian School, has expressed interest in pursuing a career in long-term health care, either as a nurse or an activity director like her mom. Now that school is in session, she often spends afternoons at The Terrace helping out and sometimes all day on Fridays, when her school typically does not have classes.


Watching Rebecca receive the national award on Oct. 8 in front of a crowd of 2,000 gathered in Nashville was "pretty emotional," said Satterfield, her mom.


The award night was "really fun," said Rebecca, who also enjoys basketball, volleyball, roller skating and helping lead a youth Sunday school class at her church, Owsley Fork Baptist. The plaque she received for the national award hangs on her bedroom wall.


Just a few years ago, Rebecca struggled with an anxiety disorder so severe that her mom removed her from public school to place her in the much smaller Berea Christian School.


"She couldn't even lift her head up to look at people," Satterfield said. "Now here she is, volunteering and interacting with these elderly people. That means a lot for someone her age to be able to do that."


The roughly 100 residents at The Terrace have come to look forward to Rebecca's visits, often asking about her when she's not there, Satterfield said.


Her involvement in an activity is often motivation enough to get residents out of their rooms, Strunk said.


"Sometimes when we're encouraging them to come to an activity, they'll just say, 'I don't feel good today,'" Strunk said. "But if they know Rebecca's going to be there, they're up for it right away."