If you’re an Episcopal Church Home resident, or if your senior loved one is living here in our Louisville retirement community, there’s probably a special personal care provider or ECH team member who’s made you and your family feel especially welcome, cared for and honored.

She may have been a nurse. He may have been a patient care assistant or a physical therapist. She may have been the person who asked you how your day was, then sat and listened to you, after delivering a meal.

Today, you can let that special caregiver know just how much their words, actions, or gestures meant to you.

You can nominate an ECH staff member for the Trish Martindell Award for caregiving excellence, which is given annually by our affiliation partner, Episcopal Retirement Services (ERS).

What is the Martindell Award?

The Martindell Award is named for late ERS Board Chair Patricia “Trish” Martindell, who established it as a legacy to her father, John Wahlberg. Mr. Wahlberg had resided at Deupree Health Center (now, ERS’s Deupree House) in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Cincinnati.

She was originally inspired to create the award by witnessing her father’s caregivers’ devotion to service. The compassion and skill with which Deupree’s team members treated her father made a lasting impression on her.

Martindell joined the ERS Board in 2001, after having served as chair of Deupree Health Center’s family council during her father’s residency. She was the Chair of the ERS Board from 2010 to 2011.

Sadly, Martindell unexpectedly passed away last year.

But her namesake award continues to honor her legacy of selfless service to the Ohio Valley’s seniors, and serves as a tribute to the values that she held and which we share — namely, that elders and their families have a right to person-centered, dignified care.

The honor includes a $1,000 stipend. It’s every year given to a deserving, non-management ERS team member who exemplifies excellence in caregiving and who strives to care for our residents in special and meaningful ways.

Going forward, now that we’ve forged our new partnership with ERS, Episcopal Church Home caregivers are eligible to be nominated for the Martindell Award.

Meet 2016’s Martindell Award winner, Jerry Maco.

Last year’s Martindell Award went to Jerry Maco, who has worked as a maintenance technician at ERS’s Deupree House retirement community since 2005.

Among the many things said about him on the multiple nominations he received:

• Maco “goes above and beyond to make sure the job is completed properly and always with a smile,”
• He’s “enthusiastic in his work” and “always ready to help,”
• Jerry is, “warm, loving and caring,”
• One resident even said they were, “grateful to have him in my life.”

How many maintenance technicians make that kind of difference, or receive that level of gratitude from the people they help?

It’s that feeling — of personal ownership and responsibility to our residents, and of the joy we get in serving them — that centers us, and keeps us focused on our tradition of community service and on the caring ministry to which we remain deeply committed.

Who should the 2017 Martindell Award go to? Tell us!

We want to know how Episcopal Church Home staff members have made a positive difference in our residents’ and their families’ lives. Please consider taking a moment to recognize the people who have provided you and your family truly excellent care here in our Louisville retirement community.

Click here to fill out your nomination form. You can submit as many individual recognitions as you like. ERS will announce the winner of the 2017 Martindell Award in September.

Who will the honoree be this year? It might be the ECH staff member you nominate! Keep checking this blog for the announcement.