When her mother developed cancer, Monument Health Hospice helped Sue’s entire family. One year later, she decided to give back, volunteering to help others in Hospice. She didn’t realize it at the time, but she was only getting started.
Why do you volunteer?
It began with Hospice. I wanted to pay them back for helping my family and pay it forward to help others. What keeps me going is the people that I meet. All the other volunteers are amazing, and the people that we help are wonderful.
What have you done as a volunteer?
Hospice is where my heart is at and I still volunteer at Hospice House. But I have also served as chair of the Volunteer Auxiliary Board, because there was nobody from Hospice on the board. Since then I’ve served on the board in many different positions. The wig room at the Cancer Care Institute is another big one I support. I owned a beauty shop in town, and so I just kind of fell into that, which is a wonderful thing.
Why would you recommend volunteering to others?
It makes you feel good at the end of the day to put a smile on somebody’s face. You know that they’re going through a really tough time, but when they’re able to talk about it, it makes it not quite as bad. My favorite thing is helping these patients and working with the other incredible volunteers.
Sue Plooster credits the success of the wig room to the amazing help she gets from other volunteers, like her friend Sandy Stanton, who she refers to as her “right-hand person.” Sue says, “Sandy and the other volunteers make sure that what needs to happen gets done. They amaze me all the time.”
