BALTIMORE (WMAR) — A Maryland VA volunteer got the ultimate thank you this year after being awarded the first-ever VA Excellence in Customer Experience Volunteer of the Year award.
“I was blown away. I was like what?” said Minta Davis.
A retired Air National Guard veteran, Davis began volunteering at the VA in 2015. She has contributed nearly 1,000 hours serving in roles at every inpatient facility within the VA Maryland Health Care System. She is currently volunteering in an emergency department and hospice care.
“It’s a service from the heart,” said Davis. “There was a situation where a patient, a female patient was in hospice and the family couldn’t be there with them and so I offered, and I asked the nurse and the doctors, if I could place the phone call for the patient so the patient could hear their loved ones by phone… Oh my gosh, it opened so many opportunities and sense of gratitude just all washed over me and I knew then that was the calling, that is the call for me.”
In addition to in-person volunteer work, Davis is a mentor with the VA’s Compassionate Contact Corps program. Also known as the phone buddy program, it was established during the pandemic as a way to provide veterans stuck at home and alone with an opportunity to have routine socialization through the telephone.
In March, she was matched with veteran Ricardo Griffin, who is disabled from his service in the Navy and lives alone.
“It was getting tough. I told the social worker, ‘I need help. I need someone. I don’t want to go into a nursing home’,” said Griffin.
They speak once a week. Her advice and accountability has helped him improve his health.
“Sometimes you get the luck of the draw and it worked out,” said Griffin.
“Everything that I offer or say is coming from a place of love but it’s also coming from a place of lived experience. I just went through 43 pounds in the last 20 months on my own,” said Davis.
In addition to her 12 hours a month with the VA, she volunteers for her church food pantry. Davis hopes her service will inspire others to give back.
“We can start to help communities just by showing up. Even if it’s just an hour of your time, that is an hour well worth spent,” said Davis.
