December 19, 2007

News Release

Years of Service Earn Adventist HealthCare Volunteer a County Award

For almost two decades Rockville resident Mary Martin has spent much of her free time helping others at Adventist HealthCare.  To honor these years of service, the Corporate Volunteer Council of Montgomery County recently gave Martin the 2007 Andrea Jolly President’s Award at its annual meeting held in October.

Outgoing Council President Greg Brannan presented the award to Martin in recognition of her work both with the community at Adventist HealthCare’s Shady Grove Adventist Hospital and with the company ’s Employer Relations Department.  The award was presented Oct. 30 during the council’s annual meeting at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in North Bethesda.

“Mary has been volunteering since the early 1960s,” said Brannan, manager of Employer Relations at Adventist HealthCare. “What makes that so remarkable is that during that time, she was raising seven children and also working full time.”

Martin has been a volunteer with Adventist HealthCare since 1993, when she first started working at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital in Rockville. Since then, she has contributed about 4,600 hours at the hospital ’s Information Desk, assisting visitors, patients and callers, and the Surgical Waiting Room, acting as a liaison between family members and surgical staff.  She said that her very first experience volunteering at a hospital in New York came out of a desire to have “someone and something to talk about” in addition to caring for three young children at that time.

Going that extra step to help others is also a trait that Martin shares as her reason she enjoys volunteering at Adventist HealthCare and Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, “Everyone is so kind with a different mindset ... [and] puts in that extra step.”

Although she retired from working in 2002, between her volunteer work and spending time with her nine grandchildren, her husband once asked her, “ Tell me again why you retired?”

“We’ve had a good life, we’ve been blessed.  I have to give back,” Martin said.

The Andrea Jolly President’s Award of the Corporate Volunteer Council of Montgomery County was named for Andrea Jolly, the recently retired, longtime director of the Montgomery County Volunteer Center and co-founder of the CVC-MC.  The award is presented annually to recognize excellence in corporate volunteerism and community service.

Photo caption: Montgomery County Executive Isiah “Ike” Leggett (left) and outgoing CVC-MC President Greg Brannan (right) attended the annual Corporate Volunteer Council of Montgomery County meeting where Mary Martin (center) received the 2007 Andrea Jolly President’s Award.

Adventist HealthCare, an integrated health care delivery organization based in Rockville, Maryland, is one of the largest employers in the state of Maryland.  The mission of Adventist HealthCare is to demonstrate God’s care by improving the health of people and communities through a ministry of physical, mental and spiritual healing. Adventist HealthCare includes Shady Grove Adventist Hospital, Washington Adventist Hospital, Adventist Behavioral Health Services, Adventist Rehabilitation Hospital of Maryland, Adventist Senior Living Services, Hackettstown Regional Medical Center, Adventist Home Health Services, the Reginald S. Lourie Center for Children and Infants and LifeWork Strategies.