November 28, 2025

Leading EveryStep's Legion of Loving Hospice Volunteers

Toni Parkins began her second year as EveryStep’s Hospice Volunteer Coordinator in June 2025 – but her history with and service to EveryStep goes back much further than that. 

“My great uncle was (at Kavanagh House) in 2010 for about two days. And that was my very first introduction to it,” Tony says, “When we were here with my uncle, my grandma said: ‘When my time comes, if I have to go somewhere, this reminds me of home.  The little trees, and everything in the back, and the deer, and bird feeders outside the rooms,” Toni says, “She said: ‘I have to go somewhere. That's where I want to go’ … and so six months later, we had to make that decision, and so we brought her here, and she was here for a couple of weeks before she passed.” 

Toni says her time at Kavanagh House with her uncle and grandmother were filled with family, but she realized afterward that wasn’t the case for everyone.  A year after her grandmother’s passing, she signed up as an EveryStep volunteer. 

Toni says returning to Kavanagh House as volunteer instantly brought back good memories.  “Being able to come in here and remember those last couple weeks with her, some of the good times we had,” Toni says, “Whenever I go by room four, I'm like, Aw, that's grandma's room.” 

And whenever she walks into work, she is surrounded by love.  “We have a brick out here for her, and my great uncle, and my dad has since passed, and we put a brick out there for him, so, whenever I park up on the top, I always say ‘hi’ to their bricks. 

“If I'm having kind of a rough day, or it's a slow night, I'll go stand on the patio deck out back and just look out, and look for the deer, and listen to the squirrels jump around, and... think about it.” 

After 13 years of volunteering with EveryStep, Toni decided to turn her free-time activity into a full-time job when she took over as Hospice Volunteer Coordinator.  But for Toni, it rarely feels like work.  “That's the joy of it, is most of the volunteers find me. I don't have to do a whole lot of recruiting, which is nice.” 

Toni manages a crew of up to 125 volunteers, coordinating their efforts to fill whatever needs EveryStep’s hospice providers, patients and families need.  The more ‘little things’ that her volunteers can handle, the more time providers will have to focus on what is most important: care.  “It just frees up the staff to not have to do those types of activities if they're not going to be in that area for them to focus more on the patients themselves,” she says. 

While coordinating volunteers, its also not uncommon to see Toni still giving her time to EveryStep even when she is off the clock.  “I feel like since I still do volunteer from time to time, they hopefully respect that … like I’m one of them.  I understand their pain. And so hopefully that makes them more open to talking with me and provide me feedback.” 

Toni and her team of voulunteers work to create a safety net for families going through hospice care with family.  Speaking from experience, she says families may not realize what they are about to go through.  “People think they're strong enough, then you come in and you're losing your foundation, you're losing your grandparent, and you're losing a parent and … you're vulnerable in those moments. You're very vulnerable, and every little thing really is inflated more than it really is.” 

But those families are surrounded by those who’ve been in their shoes before when they are with EveryStep.  “Almost all of (the volunteers) have had some connection to Kavanaugh or in home hospice - even if it wasn't everystep - that has touched them and has caused them to go down this route,” Toni says. 

So what does an EveryStep hospice volunteer on Toni’s team do?  It may be easier to list what they don’t do. 

“We really have something for everyone,” Toni says, “Volunteers sometimes think: ‘I want to work at Kavanaugh House’ - especially when they have a connection here.  But what are your goals for volunteering? Are your goals doing laundering and cleaning? Because that's gonna be a big part of that at Kavanagh.” 

But thankfully there is so much help that is needed, too. 

“We have volunteers who do deliveries for us on the metro side. So if we need supplies taken out to a patient or something picked up at a patient's house and brought back to us. 

“We've had a couple bereavement clients that weren't comfortable driving to grief groups. So we'd have volunteers pick them up and drive them to those sessions and get them home. 

“We have volunteers who come into the office and put together the bereavement or admission packets that nurses take out when they're talking with new clients. They will occasionally do data entry projects for us.  

“Sometimes we'll get requests from patients to have them do light housekeeping or light yard work kind of things.  

“We have the volunteers that bake here. So we have tons of those. So blessed in that, that I don't even, I have a calendar, but I don't even keep it up to date anymore because I have somebody that's supposed to be bringing treats every single day. 

“We have our veteran programs, we do our pinning ceremonies, we have our pet therapy volunteers that bring their dogs in. We have a couple of musicians that come in and play. 

“We have 11th hour volunteers. Usually it's for, we're in their last hours … If a patient needs somebody or doesn't have any family, will send volunteers out very last minute. as many as we can get to sit with them so they're not alone when they pass.” 

And, most importantly of all, are the opportunities for volunteers to just let someone know that someone cares.  “Sometimes it's just being a listening ear for a family member that's been here around the clock and is really struggling with how long it's taking and watching their love one struggle with how long it's taken. They just need a kind face to talk to and cry with.” 

“Even though we don't feel like we're doing big, great, monstrous things for them, we do know that just giving them a smile and giving them a little interaction.”