It is a tradition that each year The Clinic recognizes one person who has gone so far beyond the norm that we simply can’t let the opportunity pass to recognize their selflessness.  This person, like our founder, Dr. Paul Mabe, has dedicated tireless energy and unwavering dedication to The Clinic and its mission.  That is why the award is very appropriately named, the Dr. Paul A. Mabe, Jr. Volunteer of the Year Award.  Rita Hasanaj received the prestigious award on October 27, 2011 at the Clinic’s annual volunteer appreciation reception held at Café 99.  Rita’s involvement in the Clinic mission began with an innocent inquiry.  Enjoy her story.

In August 2010, Rita casually mentioned to Clinic Executive Director Leslie Deaton, “Does the Free Clinic ever have the need for volunteers?” Leslie’s eyes and ears jumped to attention because as everyone knows, the Clinic can NEVER have too many volunteers. After she outlined the various volunteer opportunities, Rita immediately said, “I will be there Tuesday at 10am.” 

And that was all she wrote.  Not only was she there Tuesday at 10 but she was there Thursday at 10am as well.  And the next week was no different.  Nor the next or the next.  She literally has done it all—answered the phone, prepared charts for clinics, reminded patients of upcoming appointments and community opportunities, handled all our disability mailings which is no small task, and most recently she has assumed the mammoth undertaking of ordering and receiving all the brand name medications that are shipped to us from pharmaceutical companies.  She came in one day and accepted this new responsibility and two days later, she had established her own system for receiving, processing, and shelving, typed it up and put it in a binder.  The master organizer walked in with her arms overflowing with new organizational supplies for her new role—racks, baskets, labels, you name it—and she went straight to work to get this monumentally important job DONE.  She has it down to a science. And while it looks effortless, it is anything but.  She is nothing short of a machine…but a very quiet, lovely one. 

When Miss Rita went “cruising” this summer, we thought we had lost our arms and legs.  She has become such an integral part of our “sisterhood” at the Clinic, and we honestly do not know what we would do without her.  If we have said it once, we have said a 1000 times as she walks out the door, “Please let us clone you.”

It is with so much excitement that the staff unanimously selected the incomparable Rita Hasanaj to be our 2011 Dr. Paul A. Mabe Volunteer of the Year recipient.  Rita’s name joins the list of all other distinguished recipients of this award, and we proudly hang the plaque in its rightful place beside Dr. Mabe’s portrait in our waiting room.