Hospice honors UMF employee as Hospice Volunteer of Year
Lois King, a University of Maine at Farmington employee since 1979 and a volunteer with Beacon Hospice in Augusta, has been selected from hundreds of nominations across 34 states as Hospice Volunteer of the Year from Beacon Hospice, part of national home health and hospice company Amedisys.
Kelly Herlihy, volunteer coordinator at the Augusta hospice, made the announcement at UMF’s University Store, where King works, according to a UMF news release.
King, of Jay, started volunteering for the hospice organization several years ago after her mother, also a volunteer, required hospice care, the release said. A great lover of poetry, her mother had an extensive collection of poems she would share with friends and loved ones in her personal correspondence.
Wanting to see her mother’s legacy continue, King started a Bereavement Poetry program with Beacon Hospice, where she shares her mother’s poetry to cheer and console bereaved family and friends of hospice patients.
“Lois is not your typical direct care volunteer,” Herlihy said in her nomination letter of King for the hospice award. “What a great way to honor and carry her mother’s traditions with her than to use her mom’s stationery to send a small token from the heart to bereaved families.”
King received a commemorative plaque, flowers and a $2,500 check. Kathryn A. Foster, UMF president, also gave her a book of poetry by Wes McNair, Maine’s poet laureate and a Mercer resident.
In addition to her poetry program, King gave more than 100 hours creating more than 25 Chart a Life boards for individuals in hospice care. These collages of patients’ personal experiences and things they loved help care givers get to know and interact with a patient and are given to the family afterward as a keepsake.
“Hospice is a wonderful organization,” King said. “They provide comfort, companionship and support for patients and their families when they need it the most. I love what I’m doing.”
Oakland resident Seekins named Androscoggin Bank senior VP
Jennifer Seekins, an Oakland resident, has been named senior vice president and is now the chief treasury services and business development officer.
Seekins will lead the business and government services team at the Lewiston bank, according to a news release from the bank. The team “supports the success of their business and government clients through best in class cash management products and the highest levels of service.”
Seekins has more than 20 years of community bank experience, including at Fleet Bank in Waterville, according to the release, and more recently at Bangor Savings Bank as senior treasury and payment services officer.
TIME, Ally Financial honor Augusta auto dealer
The nomination of Charles Shuman, president of Charlie’s Auto Group — a Honda, Jeep, Kia, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru and Toyota dealer in Augusta — for the 2016 TIME Dealer of the Year award was announced recently by TIME.
Shuman is one of a select group of 50 dealer nominees from across the country who will be honored at the 99th annual National Automobile Dealers Association Convention & Exposition in Las Vegas, Nevada, on April 1, 2016. The announcement of this year’s nominees was made by Meredith Long, publisher of TIME, and Tim Russi, president of Auto Finance for Ally Financial.
“The TIME Dealer of the Year award nominees are business leaders and pillars of their communities, who have each given generously to support important charitable causes,” Russi said. “Ally is proud to honor these dealers and to recognize their commitment to making a difference.”
In its fifth year as exclusive sponsor, Ally will recognize dealer nominees and their community efforts by contributing $1,000 to each nominee’s 501(c)3 charity of choice. Nominees also will be recognized on AllyDealerHeroes.com, which highlights the philanthropic contributions and achievements of TIME Dealer of the Year nominees.
The Time Dealer of the Year award is one of the automobile industry’s most prestigious and highly coveted honors. Recipients are among the nation’s most successful auto dealers who also demonstrate a long-standing commitment to community service. Shuman, 69, was chosen to represent the Maine Automobile Dealers Association in the national competition — one of only 50 auto dealers from 16,000 nationwide — nominated for the 47th annual award. The award is sponsored by TIME in association with Ally Financial, and in cooperation with NADA. A panel of faculty members from the Tauber Institute for Global Operations at the University of Michigan will select one finalist from each of the four NADA regions and one national Dealer of the Year.
Compiled from contributed releases
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