11/24/2025
Excerpted from The Journal News on 11/19/2026 (written by Katrina Stevens, wearing glasses):
Hospice of the Panhandle's veteran volunteer team is comprised of a variety of veterans – all branches, service records, length of time served, experience and lots of stories along the way. Hospice is honored to have them assist us with our “We Honor Veterans” program as we recognize, honor and thank our patients who have served our country.
Since Veterans Day 2024, we have served 161 veterans, and our volunteer team members were able to personally recognize 116 of them.
Emily Podolskiy, Army veteran, shares why she is connected to this mission and how she views this service to her fellow veterans now.
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There are more than 15.8 million living military veterans in the United States, which is about 6 percent of our adult population. It’s a small group of men and women who, at some point, committed to serve their nation, putting country before self. More than 70 percent of those veterans are over 50 years old. I’m not there yet. I’m in the 28 percent category of veterans who are under 50. I’m a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, not Vietnam. A mother with young children, still busy with the demands of life, not a retiree.
And so when I first started volunteering with the Hospice of the Panhandle’s “We Honor Veterans” group, I worried about how I would be able to serve and honor those men and women who came before me, who I looked up to, who inspired me to military service. It seemed I had little in common with who I assumed would be a Hospice patient.
Over the past year, I’ve discovered that my worries were unnecessary. As I’ve presented certificates to hospice patients or conducted honor ceremonies for those who recently passed, I’ve found the bond between veterans transcends age, gender, and circumstances. Whether discussing units, assignments, duty stations, or deployments, the men and women I’ve met during my time volunteering have been a gentle reminder that I followed in the footsteps of dedicated service members with whom I share a unique experience.
For me, it’s been a privilege to honor their service to our nation at the end of their lives. I encourage any veteran to consider volunteering for the “We Honor Veterans” program. It’s an opportunity to continue to serve out of uniform by helping Hospice serve veterans with all the dignity and honor they deserve in their final days.
Our veteran team would love to invite more veterans to join us in this mission. Visiting a veteran, presenting a certificate of thanks, sharing stories and memories of camaraderie, holding vigil in their final moments and being present are some of the ways we can use your help! Please consider joining us for Spring Volunteer training first quarter 2026 if you are a veteran and continue your service to the veteran community.
Katrina Stevens is the Transport & Volunteer Services Manager at Hospice of the Panhandle. Her passion for working in hospice care grows out of her own experience with Hospice caring for a loved one and has developed into a lifelong passion for connecting volunteers to the right opportunity for them within hospice care. She has worked for Hospice of the Panhandle since 2010.
