Health Department Celebrates with Volunteers

By Diane Lee, Public Information Officer, Garrett County Health Department

The Garrett County Health Department recently held a celebration to honor their volunteers who gave a total of 1,335 hour to prevention related events in 2021.

“I am deeply grateful to each of our volunteers for sharing their time with us throughout the year,” said Health Officer Bob Stephens. “The part our volunteers play in the prevention efforts in their communities extends a personal touch to our public health endeavors.”

Despite the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic, 94 persons volunteered their time to advance public health in their communities. Some of those hours involved serving on committees and boards, but a majority were from volunteering with community planning groups. These groups are made up of volunteers who plan, coordinate, and implement community-based, family friendly activities, each of which includes prevention education. 

Most of the groups have been in existence for more than 20 years and have become an integral part of their community, helping celebrate holidays with light-up night and food baskets, and organizing fishing rodeos while including prevention messages in their programming.

“You have helped saturate your communities, whether that’s a school, a neighborhood, a town, or the county, with messages about where to dispose of unwanted medications, how to read a food label, where to get help quitting tobacco, where the best walking trails are, and how to talk to teens about underage drinking, and those efforts have achieved results,” said Kendra McLaughlin, Director of Health Education and Outreach at the health department as she addressed the group. 

She highlighted the following positive changes that have occurred in the last 10 years in Garrett County: 

• alcohol use among high school youth has dropped from 46% to 35%; 
• cigarette use dropped from 24.7% to 13.7%, and 
• prescription drug misuse dropped from 20% to 13.7%. 

These reductions in usage occurred in the county despite what was happening in the nation. During the same time period, the opioid crisis continued to be an epidemic, drug overdoses increased at alarming rates, and marijuana was being destigmatized and legalized around the country.

The Health Department also recognized two volunteers for contributing more than 50 hours each to their planning groups. Betty Anderson gave 53.5 hours to the Kitzmiller Empowerment Groups and Shannon Baker contributed 53 hours to Crellin Outreach Partnership during the 2021 calendar year.

Attendees at the celebration represented the Accident Community Planning Group, Club 21550, Crellin Outreach Partnership, Friendsville Community Watch, Health Planning Council, Kitzmiller Empowerment Group, and Youth in Action.

For more information about community planning groups or volunteering at the Health Department, call Health Education and Outreach at 301-334-7730.

Cutline: Pictured above are the volunteers and staff from the Health Department who attended the recent Volunteer Dinner. Pictured left to right in the front row are Kendra McLaughlin, Angela Olinzock, Breanna Olinzock, Natalie Bender, Jaci Patton, and Macie Walker; second row: Robin McGill, Heather Berg, Betty Anderson, Kathy Williams, Cassy Baker, Kristen Glotfelty, and Shannon Baker; third row: Kara Lyons, Will McGill, Nancy Brady, Sharon Custer, Christy Thomas, Glenda Lane, Barb Speicher, and Amber Sanders; back row Gillian Shreve, Terry Shreve (behind) Maddie Berg, Mike Brady, Patty Wells, Keren Miller, Julia Lewis, Duane Patton, Harvey Speicher, and Machelle Bender.