Carol Mayer
Your gift at work:
Lending a helping hand
If there is ever a good day to receive chemotherapy, BIDM C’s patients know that Tuesday is the day. Part of what makes Tuesdays so special is the presence of Carol Mayer. She has been volunteering on Shapiro 9, the chemotherapy floor, every week on this particular day for more than 17 years. She knows all the volunteers, doctors, and nurses by name. Patients know her for her warm smile, compassionate word, understanding ear, and of course, her cheese and crackers platter and a freshly baked array of cookies, breads, and lemon squares, which have become a favorite on the floor.
“I really enjoy my Tuesdays,” says Carol Mayer affably as she makes the rounds, bringing one chemo patient a cup of coffee with milk and one sugar, and another a homemade chocolate chip cookie and slice of cranberry bread. “There are wonderful volunteers on Shapiro 9 every day, but I don’t bake and bring cheese and crackers every week; I alternate with the other volunteers.”
In truth, Mayer contributes much more than nourishment to Shapiro 9’s cancer patients. She helped to build Patient-to-Patient, Heart-to-Heart, a volunteer program in which cancer survivors lend support and empathy to cancer patients.
“We are a group of people who completed treatment and training, and now we volunteer in the chemo unit,” says Mayer, a two-time cancer survivor who describes herself as “lucky.” “We talk with patients, serve lunches and offer snacks, and do whatever we can to free up the nurses. The doctors and nurses here care about what they’re doing, and they care about the patients—how they feel physically and emotionally. We want to give back to the hospital and staff that have taken care of us over the years.”
It is these sentiments that led Mayer and her husband, Robert, to also commit significant financial resources to the cancer care program at BIDMC. They made a gift to endow Windows of Hope, a specialty shop offering products and resources designed for cancer patients. Open since 1999, the shop has become known as a warm and supportive place, a place where patients gather to share stories of hope and inspiration. Mayer often stops by on Tuesdays to chat with the store’s staff and share her straight-from-the-oven sweets.
Married now for nearly 50 years, the Mayers made a significant planned gift to the medical center, the proceeds of which will be designated toward cancer care initiatives.
They also recently made a gift to support the purchase of two ambulances for BIDM C’s exclusive use to transport patients between the east and west campuses and BID–Needham. The gift is causing a lot of excitement in the BIDMC community.
“This was an extraordinarily generous gift and an important one” says Jayne Sheehan, senior vice president of ambulatory and emergency services at BIDMC. “The ambulances will be equipped with state-of-the-art medical technology, provide the medical center with significant budgetary savings in the years to come, and offer patients a seamless transfer and consistent care.”
Mark Zeidel, M.D., chair of the Department of Medicine, is equally happy with the new vehicles, which are expected to be fully operational by April. “This gift enables us for the first time to begin to build our own transport team. Staff will be trained by BIDMC and be fully integrated into the care we provide at the medical center. We are ahead of the curve on this,” he says. “We are the first to use this transport model.”
Though the Mayers hesitate to discuss their philanthropy in public, they know the significance of giving back to their community and are eager to pass the concept along to their four children and eight grandchildren. Their legacy is unfolding before their eyes.
One of their granddaughters recently asked friends and family to contribute to Windows of Hope instead of buying her birthday presents. One son came to Shapiro 9 with the World Series ring a couple of years ago to photograph cancer patients with the ring. He even printed the photos for the patients and returned to hand them out. And after receiving her own cancer scare, their daughter established Judy’s Hope, a fundraiser to support the Division of Hematology/Oncology at BIDMC.
As Mayer returns to the kitchen to gather food for another round of deliveries, she stops and looks around the ward. The nurses bustle about; patients occupy every available chair; machines pump potent medications into the bloodstream of each patient, some of whom are elderly, but many of whom are very young.
“Bob and I are proud of our family,” says Mayer seriously. “We are so glad to help.”
