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Name: Joanie Groome
From: Ithaca NY
Family: Mom, Alice; Brothers, Johnny and Jimmy; Sister-in-law, Betsy; Nieces, Corinne, Katie, Kelly; Four Canines, Valerie, Juliette, Gigi, Pappy; Three Felines, Trixie, Tug, Cedric.
Hobbies: Working-out, reading, taking walks, movies, fixing up the house
Volunteer Work: Cayuga Dog Rescue, Camp Good Days and Special Times, Dog Park Steering Committee, American Red Cross
Quote to Live By: “Consider the Alternative.”
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In the dictionary next to "huge heart" and "community service" there should be photographs of Joanie Groome. She is a marvel. By day, she is a program leader and coordinator for recreation support services at the Ithaca Youth Bureau. In that capacity, she designs, coordinates, and oversees a multitude of programming for our area's youth, and specializes in programming for youth and young adults with developmental disabilities. She is deeply committed to the clients of the Youth Bureau and to her work there, and always amazes me with her upbeat, positive attitude, even when having to give up personal time on nights, weekends, and holidays so that she can help run special activities for the clients, she is ever-positive.
Though it sounds impossible, in addition to this full-time job, she also is a lecturer at Ithaca College, teaching 3 classes each semester on topics such as working with clients with developmental disabilities, sexuality, recreation services, and health promotion. Again in her role as lecturer, she is highly committed to her students and to the topics she teaches, which is no doubt why her classes are in demand and her teacher ratings are impressively high.
In what little free time she has, she volunteers as a foster mother for Cayuga Dog Rescue. Always the champion of the underdog (pun unintended!), she specializes in fostering elderly dogs, often who have led lives of severe neglect and even abuse, and who need a great deal of social and emotional rehabilitation. Thank goodness for them that they land in Joanie's wonderful, loving home, because they get the benefit of her deep and abiding love, along with her limitless patience and understanding. Senior dogs are euthanized at very high rates in high-kill shelters because most people want to adopt young dogs. joanie saves so many lives by opening her home to them, and is rewarded with the most loving and grateful dogs imaginable.
When she has a moment to breathe in the summer, she also volunteers for a specialized camp for kids with severe medical problems such as HIV-Aids. For the better part of a week each summer, she donates her time and shares her love, knowledge, and spirit with some of the greatest kids who are facing some of the roughest medical challenges that exist. And when she comes back from these sessions, she is always talking about how much she learned and how great the kids are. Humble to the core, Joanie is grateful to be able to help others and counts herself incredibly lucky to have opportunities to do so, and in the doing, to share time with people who she finds deeply inspiring.
And last but certainly not least, on a personal note, Joanie is a fabulous mom of her own dogs and cats, and a phenomenal friend. Always supportive, caring, and there when you need her, she is a joy to everyone who gets to be part of her life.
Nominated by Susan Wiser |
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