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Special Gifting
High School Volunteers learn and grow
by Sherri Heller
Article is from Matters Magazine
It's nearly 3:30 on a Thursday afternoon at the Gift Shop at the Kessler
Institute for Rehabilitation. Behind the cash register a West Orange High
School student rings up an angel gift card and a singing stuffed animal.
Another student chats warmly with the family who's visiting their brother.
Gifts wrapped and ready, the family makes its way to the elevator. They
smile back at the two volunteers, sigh and wave as they board the elevator
to visit their brother, who has suffered a permanent spinal cord injury.
"I learn every week how to relate to someone with a disability in a way that gives them dignity and respect," comments senior volunteer Meghan Rich. "And to their family as well." Rich's hours at Kessler have been an inspiration.
Another volunteer student assists a Kessler outpatient, just back from his physical therapy session. In his new electric wheelchair, the patient looks for a specific device that his therapist recommended he purchase at the Gift Shop. Both young men share a laugh about a fumbled football pass they watched on TV the night before.
"Kessler is a special place," says Shelly Mandel, coordinator of its volunteers, "and the WOHS students who volunteer here are special kids. You have to have a heart to work here." Mandel, who began her own career at Kessler some 22 years ago as a volunteer, now runs the Gift Shop and trains all the students. Referring affectionately to these volunteers as "her kids," Mandel points out that they come from every ethnic background and many neighboring high schools, including Livingston, Morris Catholic, Seton Hall Prep, and Solomon Schechter.
To qualify for volunteering opportunities at Kessler, students must be at least 16-years old and apply directly to Ken Caldera, Director of Human Resources at the Institute. Each must also complete a required application with a parental consent form, guidance counselor recommendation, medical clearance and a statement expressing why he or she wishes to volunteer at Kessler. After Caldera meets with each applicant, there is a brief orientation.
"As a community outreach component of Kessler, we are happy to introduce students to the health care profession and provide them with the rewarding and fulfilling experience of volunteering," Caldera explains.
This enriching aspect of community service with an ongoing commitment to education has contributed to Kessler's outstanding reputation. Since its creation in 1948 by the renowned orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Henry H. Kessler (1896-1978), the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation has become New Jersey's largest acute care rehabilitation hospital. Its guiding principle was, and still is, that rehabilitation is hope translated into action. From Dr. Kessler's years of dedicated service in private practice and from his career path as Chief of Staff at the Hospital for Crippled Children in Newark, he passionately believed that it is a patient's ability, not a patient's disability that counts. Dr. Kessler recruited top specialists in all areas of rehabilitation who focused on restoring every patient's strength and skills, thus enabling him or her to lead an independent, safe and proactive life.
As a result, the Institute's pioneering training techniques and leadership
in comprehensive acute specialty rehabilitation is recognized world-wide.
Spinal cord, brain injury, stroke, amputee, musculoskeletal, neurological
and general rehabilitations at Kessler have become the gold standard for all
rehabilitative care.
Yet, beyond the medical, technological and scientific advances at Kessler comes the profound and heartfelt creed that Dr. Kessler expressed so eloquently in his 1968 autobiography, The Knife Is Not Enough: "There grew a deep faith in our work here at Kessler and in ourselves. I began to understand that the strength of an Institute lies in its people, qualified dedicated people with vision and imagination as well as understanding and compassion."
Once approved for volunteer status, students arrive at the Gift Shop, where Mandel locks in a working shift of two to three hours, usually once a week for the duration of that school year. The students are responsible for managing the retail store, delivering mail to the hospital patients, preparing gift baskets and balloons for delivery, and other tasks. Because the Gift Shop functions as an in-house mini shopping mall, the students come to value their interaction with many of the patients at Kessler.
The students also created the Gift-Cart-On-Wheels, which they bring around to patients who are recovering from more serious injuries. WOHS juniors and best friends Nirali Patel and Kathy Leyva just started their volunteer work at Kessler and already see the rewards.
"The first time we brought the gift cart to one patient upstairs, I felt really bad for her," explains Patel, "But then when I see all the teddy bears from the gift shop that she has in her room and how her spirit brightens when we come in, I feel like we are part of something really beautiful."
Student volunteer, A.J. Fusco has made a special connection with one cerebral palsy patient; a seven-year-old wheel-chair-bound girl. It seems she's developed a bit of a crush on the graduating senior and visits him every week during his shift at the Gift Shop. Over time, Fusco has noticed a marked improvement in her speech and motor skills.
"We talk about her favorite candy and Webkinz. I run along side her as she drives her electric wheel chair down the corridor," Fusco describes. "When you get to your senior year, there's so much to do, but making a difference in this little girl's world - that's what it's all about."
Mandel and "her kids" truly are upholding Dr. Kessler's vision today. "We sell ADLs, or aids for daily living, which are assistive devices designed to help disabled patients. The students learn very quickly how items like the long-handle shoe horns, reachers, sock aids and exercise equipment play a vital role in a patient's long term recovery."
In this upcoming season-of-giving, where no gesture of kindness is too small, it becomes clear that Dr. Kessler's vision of courage and compassion lives on. These student volunteers, under the keen and careful watch of Mandel, are carrying his legacy at the Kessler Institute into the 21st- century with a dedicated sense of purpose, service and heart.
Sherri Heller is a freelance writer, produced playwright, and former CBS executive.
