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Upcoming Events
  
October 5
BFF Blitz: 2 Hours of Power -
Burn Foundation Campus
  
October 10
Project Sojourner Open House -
Chavis House
  
October 12
Charity Motorcycle Ride - Lexington, SC
  
October 17
8th Annual Jeffrey Vaden Chavis Golf Tournament - Lexington, SC
  
October 21
Jefferson Energy Charity Golf Classic - Evans, GA
 
November 2
Easley Fire Department Boot Drive - Easley, SC
  
For more information contact Bobbie Jo Gainey at [email protected]
  

Come out and join us for the BFF Blitz, Saturday, October 5th, 10 - Noon, at the Burn Foundation campus located at

3614 J. Dewey Gray Circle.

Visit www.joinbff.org for more information.

Burn Foundation Blitz 

Caring by the Numbers

56,642 - the number of
Can-It! cards being delivered to elementary school students within the CSRA.
Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.
Henry Ford

  

Want to be our BFF and get a cool window decal?

 www.joinbff.org     

There are not enough trees in the forest for me to write my gratitude to the people at JMS. They took care of me AND my family. Words cannot express my feelings.

 

Jim Puckett 

Burn Survivor

Can-It! logo  

Bring your empty aluminum cans to one of these locations during the month of October and help support our Pediatric Burn Fund.
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October 2013

Greetings!   

People sometimes think the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital and Southeastern Firefighters Burn Foundation are one and the same.  We are not.  We are partners, friends, backyard neighbors and collaborators.  We share a dedication to caring for burn patients and their families. We are bound by a mutual respect.   At the Burn Foundation, we are in awe of the knowledge and skill of the healthcare professionals at the Burn Center.  "Proud" - is the word that comes to mind.   In this edition, you will meet one of Doctors Hospital's nurses.  Her  volunteer leadership helped shape the Burn Foundation.  There are countless others - nurses, social workers, administrative assistants, etc. who volunteer any time we need them.  We appreciate each and every one of them.

Clowning Around for a Cause 

As a little girl Barbara Cooper-Grant dreamed of being a mother and a nurse, so after the second of her two children reached driving age Barbara returned to school and began working on her nursing degree.  After having watched her father's recovery from open-heart surgery Barbara thought she wanted to work in cardiology, but after a rotation in burn care as a student nurse, she had a change of heart.

"Forgive the pun, but burn nursing gets under your skin," laughed Cooper-Grant.  "But it's not for everyone.  You either love it or you hate it."    It doesn't take long for a nurse to recognize that they will either ask for a transfer in about two weeks, or they're hooked for life, says Cooper-Grant, who worked for 14 years as a burn nurse in the Joseph M. Still Burn Center.  Because of a back injury she left patient care and today serves as the Director of Education, Student Services and Respiratory Therapy at Doctors Hospital.

"Burn care is hard," says Cooper-Grant.  "You have to perform procedures for the patient that are helpful, but painful.   Nurses must be diligent in keeping the patient free from infection; this requires wearing a mask, hairpiece, gown, sterile gloves and shoe covers.  It gets very hot and monotonous in the patient's room."

But the rewards far outweigh the difficulties, says Cooper-Grant.  "Taking care of burn patients is like watching a roller coaster ride.  Often they are very critical, and then get better, and then they may have a setback that takes them to critical status again. It's a rewarding feeling to know that you got the patient through your shift.  And when you help them go from victim to survivor - well, no words define it.   It's a phenomenal feeling."

Not long after becoming a burn nurse Cooper-Grant saw the need to help with the Burn Center's Burn Outreach program.  This included using the mascot, Burnie, to teach burn prevention to elementary students, as well as teaching thermal, chemical and electrical burn care to first responders, industry personnel and nursing students.

During this time, Cooper-Grant saw a need to join forces with local fire departments in teaching fire prevention through the professional clown program.  She went to clown school and created the character Tickles.  "It required a lot of patience to be a clown," says Cooper-Grant.  "It took hours to get made-up and dressed, and then you had to put up with children who would cry or pull on you.  But it was a lot of fun and the kids really responded well to our message."

In 1994 Cooper-Grant began volunteering with the Southeastern Firefighters Burn Foundation and in 1996 became the president of the Board of Directors.  Cooper-Grant's fingerprints are still seen throughout the Foundation today.  Under her leadership, the Shirley Badke Burn Retreat was founded.  Her efforts to create a facility for burn families to stay for free while visiting their loved ones led to her winning the Frist Humanitarian Award, created by HCA Healthcare to honor outstanding individuals for their humanitarian and volunteer activities.

In recent years, she has been a faithful volunteer at the annual Rodeo Nights fundraiser helping manage the contestants' parking lot, painting faces for the little buckaroos, and pitching in to help wherever she is needed.  Barbara Cooper-Grant, RN, BSN, MS embodies the volunteer spirit of the Southeastern Firefighters Burn Foundation and we are grateful for her continued friendship and support of the Foundation.  Like most of our volunteers, she does it so quickly and quietly we seldom have time to thank her. 


Southeastern Firefighters Burn Foundation, Inc.
3416 J. Dewey Gray Circle
Augusta, Georgia 30909
1-800-650-BURN