Barbi Zingone, Hospice of Warren County volunteer coordinator, is like many of the volunteers she coordinates.

She came to Hospice volunteer training after having family members served. After both her father and then her mother had been enrolled with Hospice during their end-of-life journeys, Zingone took the grief counseling offered. During that time, Zingone said, “Ellen Scalise talked to me about volunteering, and I wound up taking that training.”

Then, an opportunity to work with Hospice presented itself. When the agency decided to split the Bereavement Coordinator and Volunteer Coordinator positions, it created an opening and Zingone applied.

“It’s really neat for me,” said Zingone, “helping the volunteers who helped me.”

Altogether, Zingone said she coordinates the efforts of just over 100 volunteers, each with unique skills and abilities that directly support the Hospice of Warren County mission of “compassionate end-of-life care assuring dignity for body, mind, and spirit.”

According to Lisa To, Hospice of Warren County Executive Director, volunteerism is how Hospice started. Founded just seven years after the first nonprofit Hospice agency started in Connecticut, Hospice of Warren County was started under the direction of Dr. Roger Mesmer, a psychiatrist at Warren State Hospital, and with the philanthropic help of Joseph DeFrees.

“Volunteers,” said To, “have always been the heart of our agency.”

Volunteers at Hospice are treated, said To, like employees.

Background checks and tuberculosis tests are just part of the efforts Hospice puts forward to ensure that the goal of compassionate care that supports the highest quality of life possible for patients is achieved.

Volunteers go through an eight-week training, held each year, which impresses upon potential volunteers things like the Hospice concept and philosophy, listening and communication skills, palliative treatment, hospice ethics policies, social work, personal death awareness, spirituality, infection control and universal precautions, and documentation, compliance, and confidentiality requirements. Volunteers are also interviewed, said To, not because the offer of help isn’t appreciated but because the importance of the mission needs to be clearly and prominently at the front of each volunteer’s mind.

What brings volunteers to Hospice of Warren County (HOWC), said To, is both unique and somewhat universal. Many people are driven by a calling to get involved, said To, and many are family members of former hospice patients who’ve experienced the help that HOWC offered. And the variety of skills that volunteers bring to the effort, said To, is astounding. Still, said To, the experience of volunteering at HOWC is unique in that “you get so much more than you ever give.” Many volunteers express a sense of clarity about life priorities. “When you’re constantly aware of the reality of death,” said To, it becomes really easy to understand what really matters most in life. And although it’s an experience that directly confronts death on a regular basis, said To, the training involves very seriously coming to terms with death on a personal level. Making peace with the inevitability of death, said To, makes it much easier to appreciate one’s life. “It enables you to be able to care for anyone,” said To.

“You’re being allowed into a patient’s and their family’s life during a very personal and intimate time,” said To.

For all of the HOWC volunteers, that invitation is an honor.

And while the most common response for volunteers when they tell others that they volunteer for hospice is surprise and an admission that such work would depress most people, volunteers roundly state that the atmosphere is decidedly hopeful, helpful, and positive. Volunteers, said To, are able to take an overwhelming experience for both patients and caregivers, many of whom are taking on unfamiliar roles as family members to provide care to their dying loved ones, a bit of respite. “They ease caregiver’s worries,” said To.

“They take away from their stress and responsibility. Little things,” she said, “make a big difference.”

Anyone interested in learning more about volunteering with Hospice of Warren County can contact Zingone at (814) 723-2455. The 2017 volunteer training will begin in March.