Dressed for Community Service

Jackie Podger knows how to dress for success.

Volunteering to work on the Oh! What a Night! fund-raising gala for Duke's hospice program, she once pulled on overalls and, reminiscent of decorating for the high school prom, transformed the MetroSports gym into an elegant ballroom. The event raised $14,000 the first year, and $40,000 last year. With the event held at a country club this year, she donned an evening gown to sell tickets for the soiree and raised more than $61,000.

But it takes more than clothes to make the volunteer, and Podger's volunteer activities over the past two decades cover a range broader than her varied wardrobe. A senior practice partner with human resources' Learning and Organization Development group at Duke, Podger squeezes in as many as 20 additional hours a week helping others. Duke recognized her dedication in giving to others by naming Podger the 2005 Duke University Employee Community Service Award, which is sponsored by the Office of Community Affairs.

"I have a very high energy level," Podger said. "It's not that I have a greater capacity for caring. I think I have so much energy, I need to channel it into ways it can make a difference."

In nominating Podger for the award, Carolyn Colsher, volunteer services coordinator for Duke Health Community Care, which runs Duke Community Hospice, cited Podger's talents as counselor, speaker and fund-raiser that benefit the hospice program. She went on to laud Podger as "a listener, companion and caring friend to some of our most vulnerable citizens, people who might otherwise be neglected."

Podger became a patient-family support volunteer in 2002, shortly after her father was diagnosed with a stage 4 cancer. Her parents lived in Missouri at the time, and Podger flew back and forth during the 10 months between his diagnosis and death. His hospice care allowed him to die at home and helped her mother through the final stage of his life. Three months later, Podger's favorite aunt began receiving hospice care in Florida for the final few months of her life.

"I don't see how people do it without hospice," Podger said. She began volunteering with hospice at Duke once she realized her father would be receiving hospice care. "I started working right away. It was what I needed to do."

After her father's death, she gravitated toward helping to raise money for the program, all the while continuing her work with patients. In working with patients, she said, "I'm always reminded of why I'm doing the fund raising. I'm so passionately committed to the work hospice does."

Doreen Matters, development manager for Duke Health Community Care, is inspired by the grace Podger brings to her volunteer work.

"Jackie is always in a good mood, and she exudes that to everybody," Matters said. "Her enthusiasm is contagious. She empowers the group she works with. She really made those committees work."

When the fund-raiser needed a bin to put the raffle slips in, Podger shopped e-Bay at three in the morning to find one. To boost the amenities at the bar, she ran to Costco and bought vats of maraschino cherries and olives, knowing she would never be reimbursed. As chair of the fund-raiser, she knew she had zero budget to work with, but that didn't stop her from making requests to solicit raffle items.

"She has the ability to be gregarious and knock on doors, but she also does patient care," Matters said. "That requires a personality that allows her to adapt to patients' needs and read their body language and meet them at their level."

Her work with hospice is only one part of her volunteer service. She also serves as a volunteer child custody mediator for Durham District Court. Having done similar work in Charlotte, she was interested when after moving to Durham she heard that Judge Richard Chaney of Durham wanted to start a custody mediation program. She called him, and soon he was assigning mediation cases to her. Then she began training others to take on this difficult work.

Podger started her avocation as a volunteer by signing on at age 14 as a candy striper in a hospital in Belleville, Ill., where she grew up. She kept up the practice when she and her husband moved to North Carolina.

She said she is conscious of not overextending herself. Podger selects volunteer work that draws on her talents or intrigues her personally. Colsher noted in nominating Podger that she has worked with Special Olympics, Duke's International House, the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Support Program and the Duke Eye Center. She is a speaker for the Durham County Youth Home, a mediator for the Employee Mediation Program of Duke University Health System and worked on the Women-Built Habitat for Humanity home. This week, she began serving as a board member of Triangle Seniors food assistance program.

"Burn-out has never been a problem," Podger said. "Being bored is the worst thing for me, so I always have 20 different things going at one time."

"I'm constantly aware that I have a lot to give," she said, "and I want to keep doing that."

No matter how she's dressed.