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Has an Episcopal Retirement Services caregiver made a significant, positive impact on your life, or on a senior loved one’s life? Do you have a favorite nurse, driver, greeter, dining services or other non-management staff member? We’d love to know who and why.

To that end, consider taking time to nominate that ERS staff member for The 2016 Martindell Award! Nominations for this year’s award are open now through the end of July; the winner will be announced in September.

What is The Martindell Award?

The Martindell Award is a special honor granted each year to a deserving ERS team member who exemplifies excellence in caregiving and who strives to care for our residents in special and meaningful ways.

It’s named for retired Procter & Gamble executive and former ERS Board Chair Patricia “Trish” Martindell, who established it four years ago as part of a generous endowment. She founded the award as a legacy in memory of her father, John Wahlberg, who resided at the former Deupree Health Center (antecessor to our current Deupree Cottages).

Martindell was inspired by her father’s caregivers and by their devotion to service. The compassionate and skilled ERS team members who helped him made a lasting impression on Martindell by the way they enabled her father to live out his last years with dignity, purpose, choice and freedom.

Martindell joined the ERS Board in 2001, after having served as the Chair of the Family Council at Deupree Health Center during her father’s residency there. She served as ERS Board Chair from 2010 to 2011. Trish rejoined the board in 2016 and serves on the Leadership Committee (Chair), Executive Committee, Next CEO Selection Committee, Strategic Planning Committee, Personnel Committee, and ERS Affordable Living Board.

In addition to her hard work and thoughtful leadership at ERS, Martindell served for 21 years as a volunteer and board member for the Cincinnati Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Episcopal Retirement Services “has created a culture throughout the organization that attracts the highest quality of people,” Martindell told us in a 2013 interview.

Serving on the board provided her with “the challenges of learning the complexities of the business – something I miss about Procter & Gamble,” she said.

Meet last year’s winner, Patrice Pryor

In 2015, ERS staffer Patrice Pryor received The Martindell Award after being nominated by the family of a Deupree Cottages resident.

In their nomination of her, the family described Pryor as a team member who “strives to treat the residents like family, has always responded with gentleness, patience and respect.”

“Patrice improves our mother’s daily life with her kind and caring interactions,” they wrote. “We are grateful for her dedication to the residents at the Cottages.”

In winning the award, Pryor received a $1,000 check and was recognized personally by her managers and coworkers. The award was presented to her in person by Trish Martindell and her husband, Jack, in a special ceremony.

Competition for the Martindell Award is strong

Last year, ERS residents and their families made over 140 nominations of non-management ERS team members who exemplify person-centered, dignified care. This year, we’re eagerly anticipating a similar number of nominations. The Martindell Award has indeed become known, among ERS staffers, as quite a prestigious honor.

We love to hear how our staff members have made a positive difference in residents’ and families’ lives. And if an ERS staff member has made your stay, or your loved one’s stay, a loving, dignified care experience, then we want to know.

Please consider taking time to nominate your favorite staff member for The 2016 Martindell Award. And stay tuned in September — we may announce your nominee as this year’s winner!