Miami, Florida, August 15, 2007—Three Brevard employees of VITAS Innovative Hospice Care® of Brevard County were honored nationally at the company’s Employee Recognition Awards: a business manager who lends a hand—even in a patient’s home, a social worker who started a club for grieving men, and a volunteer coordinator who uses creative marketing tactics.

VITAS, the nation’s leading hospice provider with 8,640 employees, each year recognizes those who best serve their patients, families and fellow employees. Pilar Combs of Orlando, Jason Hoppenbrouwer, MSW, LCSW, of Satellite Beach and LuAnn Moyer of Melbourne were among this year’s 25 honorees.

Combs, business manager, sometime-telephone operator and even grocery deliverer, received the Excellence in Management Award. A VITAS employee since 1999, Combs demonstrated her ability to manage any situation during the 2005 hurricane season, when she spent the night fielding calls from patients and families who needed assistance. When a family caregiver needed food and supplies, Combs personally delivered the supplies, and then went to the store to buy the family food.

Hoppenbrouwer, a social worker, received the Outstanding Customer Service Award. Understanding the special needs of grieving men, he started the Good Grief Breakfast Club “to provide a non-threatening venue for men to open up and talk about their losses.” Hoppenbrouwer is highly resourceful; in the three years he has been with VITAS he has helped patients reunite with estranged family members, find places to live and obtain furnishings and equipment to make them more comfortable.

Moyer, coordinator of the volunteer program, received the VITAS Award for Administrative Staff. Since joining VITAS in 2004, Moyer has initiated a number of volunteer programs. In one, items of patients’ clothes are fashioned into “memory bears” for surviving family members. In another, children make decorations for social and seasonal activities in nursing facilities and assisted living communities where VITAS patients live. Moyer has written to craft and sewing shops to find skilled seamstresses and contacted local schools, day care centers and Girl Scout and Brownie troops to find young arts-and-craft designers.

As the best of the best, these three VITAS employees were among 25 national winners honored at a weekend celebration at a beachfront hotel in South Florida.