Ingram’s February 2023

Volunteers

HOPE ANDERSON The University of Kansas Hospital Hope Anderson knows well that the healing power of medicine can go far—and, perhaps, just a little farther when a spiritual element is mixed in. The volunteer chaplain with the Uni versity of Kansas Cancer Center fre quently feels that power as she helps patients through some of the darkest days of their lives. But the dark, at

MARIE MARLEY Kansas City Hospice & Palliative Care After 35 years as a grant writ er, Marie Marley was looking for something meaningful to do when she retired a decade ago. She found more meaning than she could have imagined. “My life partner, Ed Theodoru, had Alz heimer’s,” she says, so it was only natural to focus on Alzheimer’s pa

times, parts to let a light shine in. “Several weeks ago, I was in the cafeteria eating lunch,” Anderson says. “Two women came and sat with me. As we talked, I learned that the women were sisters. One had recently been diagnosed with a very aggressive form of cancer and her sister, who was visiting from out of state, was helping to take care of her.” Anderson asked if it would be all right to prayed with them; they agreed. “I knelt on the floor between them and prayed with a hand on each of their shoulders,” Anderson recalls. “After I finished praying, I remember thinking ‘this is why God has placed me here.’” As for the two women? “Both had tears in their eyes and big smiles on their faces as we hugged each other goodbye,” she says. “I haven’t seen them since that day, but I still think about and pray for them.” Anderson began as a chaplain intern, then chaplain res ident, on the medical center’s main campus. “I first became aware of the KU Cancer Center when my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and chose to come to KU for treatment—I’m happy to report she has been cancer free for over two years,” Anderson says. Vol unteering in this way, she says, “gives you an opportunity to serve; sharing your time and talents. Most organizations are delighted to have volunteers and they offer flexibility in terms of scheduling and time commitments. I cannot predict what you will get in return for your investment, and it is not wise to go into volunteering with an expectation that you will get something in return. However, with that being said, I guarantee that you will be blessed.”

tients at Brookdale Senior Living’s Clare Bridge memory care facility in Overland Park. “Little did I know I would receive so much more from these ladies than I could give to them,” Mar ley says, recalling the relationships she forged there. A few years later, she felt a call to serve at Kansas City Hospice and Palliative Care, and not just for altruistic reasons: This mis sion would be deeply personal. “I was grappling with my own mortality and thought that visiting these patients could help me as well as provide the patients with a little bit of happi ness in their final days,” Marley says. “When I decided to visit hospice patients, I thought it would be depressing, but it was anything but that. The patients and their family members are always so appreciative that I’ve come just to visit with them. I knew when I signed up that they would all pass away after a short while, so I’ve trained myself to develop relationships with them with that fact clearly in mind. Unfortunately, most of my patients die before we’ve had time to develop a close relationship, although there have been a few notable excep tions.” And yet she is able to forge connections where few had been able to before—earning her the nickname The Alzhei mer’s Whisperer around the facility. “Everyone wants to be needed,” Marley says, reflecting on her own service. “We all want to feel we’re making a difference in someone else’s life. We could even say it’s a universal human need.”

GREG KAAZ Angel Flight Central Not long after he first started flying more than 30 years ago, a thought came to Greg Kaaz: “I can come up here and burn a hole in the clouds,” he realized, “or I can use this to do some good.” He’s been doing a lot of good ever since, most of it on behalf of Angel Flight Central, which connects owners of private planes with families who need air transportation to medical destinations but might lack the means to pay for com mercial flights. “I guess I’ve been blessed in my life with what the Lord has given me, and I want to return that and share it,” says Kaaz, who owns a construction company in his hometown of Leavenworth and takes on about 15 missions a year in his Cessna Citation. “And I’ve been blessed with the ability to be a pilot, and my health is good enough that I can still fly.” His commitment to serve can be traced back to the examples of his parents, even as they were building the family business, he says. Flying, though, merged two interests. “I get a lot more out of it than the people I fly,” he says. “That may seem a little strange, but when you see how

other people are struggling through and you look at your own life, well, I got it pretty damn good.” Sure, he says, he could write charities a significant check, “but I’d much rather give $1,000 of personal service than write a check for $100,” he says. “It just means so much more when you can see who you’re helping and know that you actually are helping.” His long relationship with AFC, with years of board service and leadership, has been fueled by the group’s power to leverage contributions: For every $1 in donations, AFC is able to produce nearly $4.75 in flight services. Of his fragile passengers, Kaaz says, “obviously, the kids are the toughest,” including an energetic, lively youngster he flew years ago for special treatment: The boy had been born with no intestines, and had been fed entirely by tube. “The only thing he had ever tasted was toothpaste,” Kaaz marvels. “To think someone who never had a taste of any food but yet could be so happy—I guess you don’t know what you’re missing if you never had it—but it really makes you appreciate what you’ve been blessed with.”

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February 2023

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