Most of us in the Triangle can remember scuffling with old man winter during December of 2002. A powerful ice storm hit the area, delivering days of power outages to communities throughout the area, including Hillsborough, where the Duke CommunityHospice Inpatient Facility is located. For the Hospice staff working at the inpatient facility, as well as the patients and their families, the experience was especially trying.

“When the power company told me how long the facility could potentially be without power, I was concerned about our patients and staff,” Starr Browning, the executive director for Duke Health Community Care, says. “This was the first time the Inpatient Facility had been faced with this situation, and we worried that the generator wouldn’t keep the entire facility warm enough. We implemented our contingency plan, which called for moving our patients. It was a challenging time for everyone, and I knew it was something we did not want to have happen again.”

Thanks to the volunteers from the Duke University Medical Center (DUMC) Engineering & Operations department, it never will.

Right after the storm, Browning contacted Don Rust, the assistant director of Engineering & Operations. Together they talked about strategies, how to ensure the facility could withstand another lengthy power outage. The best solution was to install a larger generator at an estimated cost of $140,000.

“I felt like there was something we could do as a department,” Rust says. “We are all part of this community. Pretty much everyone here knew someone who had been touched by hospice care. It’s a bad time, and they make it easier. We wanted to help.”

It was Rust’s idea for Engineering & Operations to adopt the project, to donate their time and expertise to get a new generator installed.

By the spring of 2003, Duke Community Hospice had raised $48,500 for the project, “Then Don came to me and said, ‘We’ve got the rest covered, you can leave it to us,’ ” Browning says. “He and his crew at E&O have their hearts in the right place. They took this project on, never asking for anything in return.”

As it turned out, lots of people wanted to help. Nineteen engineering & operations staff members, together with nine contractors, worked nights and weekends to donate 496 hours—worth almost $14,000—to complete the project. The volunteers dug trenches for wiring, installed the generator and finished up with new landscaping. Twelve department vendors donated more then $55,000 worth of in-kind gifts, including conduits, wiring, fixtures, and the automatic transfer switch that allows the electrical current to transfer smoothly to the generator.

 

John Tillman, the electrical supervisor in the department, managed the operation. He contacted vendors about donations and kept track of volunteer hours and tasks.

“I take my hat off to Johnny,” Rust says. “It was his baby, and he took care of everything.”

Tillman got his men together and rallied them around the cause. Before long donated materials were rolling in. Many of the men he supervised during the project had been touched by hospice and wanted to give something back. Some of them lived up to 50 miles away from the facility, and they were driving in twice a week, on their days off, to help out.

“It just shows what they were willing to do for Duke Community Hospice,” Tillman says.

The volunteers completed their work in October of 2004, and at the time, Tillman had no direct experience with hospice care. Since then, his father has passed away, and Tillman credits Duke Community Hospice with making the last days of his dad’s life peaceful.

Ray Crabtree, an electrician, is another volunteer who knows the difference hospice care can make. His mother spent her last three days at the hospice facility. “It’s unbelievable, the help they give to people who have to leave their loved ones behind,” he says. “They do a fine job, and when it hits close to home, you realize it even more. I couldn’t ask for any better care than what they gave to my mother.”

Crabtree built the metal catwalk that encircles the generator. The walkway sits up off the ground and allows maintenance personnel to access and service the engine. Instead of building the catwalk on site, he did the work at home, calculating the right length and

width, getting the materials at a discount, welding it together, then painting it. When he was done, he drove the catwalk to the facility in sections and installed it.

“I know what’s involved out there,” he says, “and I didn’t want to make a lot of noise.” Crabtree enjoyed working on the project because it gave him a chance to give something to Duke Community Hospice that they didn’t have to ask for. When he finished installing the catwalk, he took his son to the hospice facility to see it.

“I told him, ‘Look up, there it is, that was right by Granny’s room,’ ” he says. “It brought back a lot of memories for both of us. They were good ones.”