Hospital honors three with highest award

BANGOR – St. Joseph Healthcare and the Felician Sisters held their annual Founder’s Day celebration on Friday, Nov. 21. Three individuals were recognized with the highest honor awarded by the hospital, the Mother Mary Angela Service Award.

Mother Mary Angela founded the Felician Sisters on Nov. 21, 1855. On each anniversary, the Mother Mary Angela Awards are presented to one clinical employee, one employee from a nonclinical department and one volunteer who continues to practice the mission of Mother Mary Angela today.

Individuals are nominated by their peers and the recipients are chosen by the St. Joseph Healthcare Mission Advisory Committee, which is made up of employees from within the organization.

This year’s clinical recipient is Vicki Kolenik, R.N., B.S.N. Kolenik, who resides in Bangor, is the employee health nurse-ethics coordinator. She came to St. Joseph Hospital in 1986 as a part-time nursing supervisor.

“I feel very honored and humbled to have been chosen for this award,” Kolenik says. “St. Joseph has been like a second family to me.”

Dean Hanson of Clifton is the nonclinical recipient. Hanson joined the hospital laundry department in 1981 and is now the laundry supervisor.

“It means a great deal to me to be working here,” Hanson says. “I like to get up in the morning and know that when I come to work, I am working to help somebody, to be a part of this mission.”

The volunteer recipient, Marianne Ruhrold of Hampden, loves what she does and refers to herself as a “professional volunteer.” After battling and surviving cancer, she wanted to give something back. She has volunteered in the Cardiopulmonary Care Unit at St. Joseph Hospital for 12 years.

“My joy,” she says, “is in meeting the patients. Sometimes, just holding a hand and listening to a story once in a while … that’s what I enjoy most.”