President's Distinguished Community Leadership Awards Presented
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| Anthony Sarbanes | Coastal Hospice and Palliative Care |
Anthony “Tony” Sarbanes received the individual award, while Coastal Hospice and Palliative Care was recognized with the organizational honor. Their work was celebrated during SU’s 89th year Spring Commencement on Thursday, May 21, at the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center.
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“Anthony Sarbanes’ entire life has been one of service, following in the footsteps of his immigrant parents who embraced their adopted country and placed high value on giving back to the community,” said his nominator, Terrance Greenwood.
Many of Sarbanes’ positions underscore this belief: educator, U.S. Army officer, mentor, coach, church leader, businessman and elected official. He has held leadership positions within the National Conference on Christians and Jews and the Maryland Conference of Parents and Teachers, as well as many local organizations that Greenwood very accurately described as “too numerous to mention.” These include the Wicomico County Council, Trinity United Methodist Church, Optimist Club of Salisbury, Salvation Army, Salisbury Little League, Wicomico County Tourism Commission, United Way, Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore, Wicomico Historical Society and Tri-County Council of the Lower Shore, among dozens of others. He retired from the U.S. Army Reserve with the rank of major general.
“Tony’s community service has touched most people who live here in some positive way,” Greenwood said, including working quietly behind the scenes to help people in need of jobs, and medical and financial assistance. These are “humanitarian acts for which he gets no public recognition, but which make a profound difference in the lives of so many people. Tony Sarbanes is the epitome of public service.”
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Founded in 1980, Coastal Hospice and Palliative Care has a long history of providing traditional hospice services, palliative care, bereavement support, education and training to residents in Wicomico, Worcester, Somerset and Dorchester counties. In 2004, its Coastal Hospice at the Lake facility at Deer’s Head Hospital Center in Salisbury became the Eastern Shore’s first inpatient hospice unit.
In the past year, Coastal Hospice has launched two programs to meet new health care challenges in the region. The organization now offers the Coastal Kids Supportive Care team to help meet the complex needs of young patients and their families thanks to the Access for Affordable Care Act. The Compass program was founded in response to Medicare’s tightening of hospice eligibility, offering resources for patients who become ineligible for hospice care due to “extended prognoses.”
“Coastal Hospice not only cares for community members at their most vulnerable, at the end of life, but also provides counsel and support to the family members and loved ones who grieve for them,” said the organization’s nominator, Stephen Farrow. “Quietly, in private homes, at nursing home and assisted living bedsides, and at Coastal Hospice at the Lake, the physicians, nurses, hospice aides, social workers, chaplains, volunteers and therapists who make up the Coastal Hospice care teams guide more than 1,000 people each year on their final journey.
“It is the reputation for excellence and integrity, and for leading the way in providing for quality of life at its end that … qualifies Coastal Hospice and Palliative Care as a distinguished community leader.”
Admission to Commencement is by ticket only. For more information call 410-543-6030 or visit the SU website at www.salisbury.edu/communityleadership.
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ABOUT THE AWARDS
SU’s Community Leadership Awards are presented annually in two categories: individual and organization. Those in Wicomico, Worcester, Somerset, Dorchester, Accomack, Northampton and Sussex counties are eligible.
Past winners include the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore; former Maryland Secretary of Agriculture Lewis Riley; Women Supporting Women and its founder, Sue Revelle; MAC Inc.; Henry Hanna, III; the United Way of the Lower Eastern Shore; Dr. Peggy Naleppa; Dove Pointe, Inc.; Dr. Carolyn Stegman; Debbie Abbott; Dr. George Whitehead; Habitat for Humanity of Wicomico County; the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce; Marty Neat; Lower Shore Enterprises, Inc.; Lee Whaley; and the Richard A. Henson Foundation.