CHICAGO, Jan. 30, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Northwestern
Medicine recently celebrated the life of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his ongoing legacy of
service during the 38th Annual Humanitarian Awards Program at
Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Five members of the Northwestern
Medicine family were presented with awards for their extraordinary
contributions to the community and for embodying Dr. King's legacy
of humanitarianism.
The Humanitarian Awards Program launched in 1979 to commemorate
the life and legacy of the late Dr. King and to celebrate his
virtues and ideals of community giving, equality, unity and
excellence. The award honors individuals, both employees and
physicians from across the Northwestern Medicine health system, who
best exemplify the ideals of Dr. King, as demonstrated by a
positive impact in the community. Since its creation the
Humanitarian Award has been awarded to 70 employees and 23
physicians. Northwestern Medicine's 2017 Humanitarian Award
recipients are:
Nicole Cartwright,
volunteer services at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest
Hospital, was recognized for her 35 years of dedication to
serving the community on both a local and global scale as a
missionary, volunteer, advocate and mentor. Cartwright's missionary
work with the group "Youth on a Mission" has brought her to
Haiti, Jamaica and Panama. Locally, she has served the community
through her the Abounding Life
Church, where her husband is the pastor. Cartwright has also
volunteered with various organizations in Chicago's north suburbs. In 2005, she worked
with PADS Homeless Shelter and the city of Northbrook to help more than 50 families
displaced by Hurricane Katrina resettle in the Chicago area. She has also served as a
volunteer and mentor at a local unwed mothers shelter helping girls
ages 13 to 18 years old through tutoring and teaching life skills.
She had just returned from a trip visiting the MLK National
Historic site in Atlanta, when she
was notified that she would be receiving the Dr. Martin Luther King
Humanitarian Award. Cartwright is a resident of North Chicago, Ill. VIDEO
Elizabeth Cumpian, RN,
surgical services at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, was
recognized for her 10 years of volunteer work with Operation Walk
Chicago, a not-for-profit medical mission providing free
orthopaedic care in developing countries. Cumpian has completed 12
volunteer trips with Operation Walk traveling all around the globe
to areas lacking medical care and resources, including rural
China and Nepal, where she aided in earthquake relief.
Along with direct patient care, she also coordinates logistics,
supplies and travel for volunteers as the director of nursing for
the Chicago chapter of Operation
Walk. Cumpian's volunteer efforts have helped 331 people walk
again. On the evening of January 20,
she went straight from the Humanitarian Awards program to the
airport for a flight to Brazil to
participate in her 13th Operation Walk mission. Cumpian is a
resident of Chicago's Beverly
neighborhood. VIDEO
Amy Kessler, Lake
Forest Health and Fitness at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest
Hospital, was recognized for her volunteer work with One Step
Camp, a camp where children with cancer can experience carefree fun
with kids facing similar situations. As a volunteer, she spends
time each summer at the camp where she helps kids with cancer
participate in a variety of outdoor activities including pitching a
tent, arts and crafts and a swimming test during which the campers
qualify to swim across the lake while their peers cheer them on to
the finish. In addition to her summers at camp, Kessler also runs
the Chicago Marathon each year to raise money for Children's
Oncology Services and One Step Camp.
Kessler is a resident of Lake Bluff,
Ill. VIDEO
David Watt, MD,
orthopaedics at Northwestern Medicine Regional Medical
Group, was recognized for his international and local volunteer
work. Dr. Watt's first medical mission trip took place when he was
studying to become a doctor at Northwestern
University Feinberg School of Medicine. His volunteer work,
including with the group MedSend, has taken him around the globe to
places like the Ivory Coast,
China and Mexico, while he also found ways to contribute
at home serving his community through volunteering as a team
physician, providing free surgeries to international patients in
need, mentoring students and, with his wife, donating an anatomy
lab to Wheaton College. In 2016, he
retired from his volunteer position at the Lawndale Christian
Health Center, after 30 years of providing orthopaedic care to
Chicago's underserved west side.
Dr. Watt is a resident of Wheaton,
Ill. VIDEO
Charles Woodward, MD,
occupational health at Northwestern Medicine Regional Medical
Group, was recognized for his work with Healing Hands Mission,
a not-for-profit organization he founded to provide medical
assistance to those without access in Guatemala. Healing Hands provides medical
services to several small villages in remote regions of
Guatemala through a volunteer team
that includes physicians, nurses, a dentist, an optician, physical
therapists and medical students. On a recent mission, Dr. Woodward
and his team treated 1,000 patient in just four days, providing:
100 referrals for follow up care with providers in Guatemala City; 400 pairs of prescription
glasses; 75 teeth extractions; and 400 treatment days of medicals
were prescribed and distributed to pregnant women, infants,
children and other adult patients including 5,000 vitamins. Healing
Hands also helped expand emergency care in the village providing an
AED, advanced respiratory equipment, burn care packs, suture trays
and obstetrics packs. Dr. Woodward is a resident of St. Charles, Ill. VIDEO
Rami Nashashibi, PhD, executive
director of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN), delivered
the keynote address about the ideals and humanitarian efforts of
Dr. King and his lasting impact on the city of Chicago. Nashashibi and IMAN led the
community-driven creation of the first permanent memorial to Dr.
King in the state of Illinois. The
MLK Living Memorial Project was dedicated last August in Marquette
Park on Chicago's southwest
side.
"I'm inspired, I'm in awe of those that continue to make that
sacrifice; who remind one another that it is possible; that remind
all of us that living up to those values that are enshrined in our
documents; that are enshrined in those that have reminded us time
and time again that what makes the country great, what makes the
city great, is the vision of those who have never tired from
helping us realize our full human potential," remarked Nashashibi
during his address.
To learn more about Northwestern Medicine, visit
http://news.nm.org/about-northwestern-medicine.html.
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SOURCE Northwestern Medicine