For Immediate Release: July 27, 2011
SHIIP Announces Statewide Award Winners
RALEIGH -- Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin would like to congratulate the winners of four statewide awards from SHIIP, the Seniors' Health Insurance Information Program, a division of the North Carolina Department of Insurance. The awards are: SHIIP Coordinator of the Year, SHIIP County of the Year, Mickey Hanula Volunteer of the Year and the Jim Long Outstanding SHIIP Service Award.
"SHIIP could never serve our state's 1.5 million Medicare recipients without the help of our volunteer and coordinator networks in all 100 counties," said Commissioner Goodwin. "While all of our 800-plus volunteers and coordinators do an outstanding job, we are proud to honor those who have stood out for their service this past year. These award winners provide excellent service to North Carolinians, and I'm honored that they are a part of our SHIIP family."
This year's award winners were announced at SHIIP's annual coordinators' conference in Greensboro, July 20-21. Congratulations to the following recipients:
- SHIIP Co-Coordinators of the Year - Jennifer Sherman and Ren Tarquinio with Brunswick Senior Resources, Inc., SHIIP's coordinating site in Brunswick County. Through their counseling and outreach efforts, they reached more than 494,000 beneficiaries.
- SHIIP County of the Year - SHIIP's coordinating site in Caldwell County is the Caldwell Senior Center. This site and its volunteers provided more than 1,751 hours of volunteer service to clients in their county.
- Mickey Hanula Volunteer of the Year - Joanne Clark, from SHIIP's Anson County coordinating site, Grace Senior Center. Joanne counseled 736 beneficiaries and held three outreach events in Anson County.
- Jim Long Outstanding SHIIP Service Award - Mary Bethel, associate state director for advocacy from AARP of North Carolina. Mary is a tremendous advocate for SHIIP and has been instrumental in partnering with SHIIP to provide outreach on Medicare Part D to rural communities. She is an active participant with Medicare Partners and stands ready to be a voice for issues related to Medicare beneficiaries.
"Congratulations to the 2011 award winners," said Commissioner Goodwin. "The SHIIP program provides a valuable service across the state, and the need for our Medicare counseling will only grow as North Carolina's Medicare population expands."
SHIIP is a division of the North Carolina Department of Insurance that offers free, objective information about Medicare, Medicare prescription drug coverage, Medicare Advantage, long-term care insurance and other health insurance information. SHIIP's trained volunteers provide one-on-one counseling in all 100 counties. For more information about SHIIP, or to get answers to Medicare questions, call SHIIP directly at 800-443-9354 or visit the SHIIP Web site by clicking on this link.
--NCDOI--