Locals awarded MHCA honors

The Daily Inter Lake

Three Flathead residents received top awards recently at the Montana Health Care Association's annual convention in Billings.

Local recipients included Cheryl Lowe of Brendan House, volunteer Adrianna Conway of Brendan House and the late Barbara Dubbs, a volunteer at Heritage Place.

A 21-year veteran at Brendan House, Lowe received the Commitment to Caring Award for Activity Directors. She spent the last 10 years as the activity director where she said she found her niche.

"I started at Brendan House as a CNA (certified nursing aide)," Lowe said. "I moved into a supervisory position within a year."

In her nomination of Lowe, Brendan administrator Deborah Wilson lauded her activity director's participation in the community as well as her efforts to involve hospital departments in the lives of residents.

Lowe said one successful effort happened when she moved the Christmas gifting tree from general community locations to the hospital cafeteria. She said the holiday gifting to residents has become a popular tradition at Kalispell Regional Medical Center.

"If I don't get on it quickly every year, I start getting e-mails," she said with a laugh.

Also, Lowe has gotten a good response from hospital employees for the annual rocking chair fund raiser.

Lowe said she was taken by surprise by the award because she was caught up in the excitement of another Brendan House-associated honor.

Conway, daughter of Richard and Tracey Conway of Kalispell, won the top youth volunteer award for her hours of service to Brendan House residents.

"She started when she was 11," Lowe said.

Conway first came with her sister Tiffany to donate a few service hours and the two never quit. She continued to come two Saturdays every month when Tiffany left for college in 2005.

"Any teenager who would give up Saturday to play Bingo with residents is really pretty special," Lowe said.

When she got a part-time job during high school, she always arranged her schedule so that she didn't disappoint the Brendan Residents by not showing up.

"The residents love her," Lowe said.

Now a freshman at the University of Montana, Conway attended the ceremony in Billings to receive her award. Lowe said she then drove all night to make a class she had to attend in Missoula the next morning.

Her award praised her enthusiastic and caring attitude which convinced her peers and members of the Flathead High School Honor Society to also become volunteers.

The top adult volunteer went posthumously to Dubbs who served as a volunteer at Heritage House every week for 17 years. She passed away just a few weeks before the award was announced.

Donna Rose, activity director at Heritage Place, said Dubbs' husband Dick and her daughter Sheila Hill traveled to Billings to accept the award on her behalf.

"She was a wonderfully sweet lady," Rose said.

Even as she became ill, Dubbs expressed regret when she couldn't make it into work with residents.

Dubbs was remembered for the role she played in helping Heritage House residents exercise their brains in fun and challenging ways. She started two of their favorite activities: the "Word Game" and "Armchair Traveler."

In writing the nomination, Rose recalled another example of Dubbs loyalty and selfless giving.

"When we moved from the old county home (on Willow Glen Dr.), we lost a lot of our volunteers," she said. "She was one of the very few who moved right along with us."

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by e-mail at cchase@dailyinterlake.com