Helping others - Joyce Koppelman

But there is a young woman at Palomar Medical Center who might be the biggest beneficiary of all.

Ivy Kensinger was 19 when she was critically injured in a December 2003 car accident. She has since remained in the critical care unit at the hospital, bedridden and on a ventilator.

A nurse in the unit contacted Shannon Shaefer, the founder of RX Pets, which provides visits by pet dogs to patients in Palomar Pomerado Health facilities, about arranging a visit for Kensinger.

Shaefer knew just whom to call. Koppelman had just rejoined the RX Pets program with her year-old chihuahua, Mindy. Koppelman and Mindy have been visiting Kensinger twice a week ever since.

"They bonded. Ivy just can't take her hands off Mindy. She pets her the whole time she's on the bed," said Koppelman.

On one visit, Mindy held back from her usual habit of running up and giving Kensinger a kiss on her cheek. Apparently sensing her friend wasn't feeling well, Mindy curled up between Kensinger's arm and body and sat quietly during the hourlong visit.

On another trip, when it was time to leave, Mindy ran away from Koppelman to the other side of the bed and hid, not wanting to go home.

"The smile on Ivy's face when she realized (Mindy) didn't want to go home with me covered all of Escondido," said Koppelman. "I was crying because it meant so much to her.

"This is the most rewarding volunteer job I have ever done, because here is this young girl on a ventilator, dialysis, a captive in bed, and you give her something living, breathing she can touch, and she is most appreciative,"

While Kensinger can't speak yet, she dictated a letter, with her mother reading her lips, to nominate Koppelman for an Escondido City Council award. Koppleman was presented the Community Spirit award at last Wednesday's council meeting.

Besides their visits with Kensinger, Koppleman and Mindy make twice-monthly trips to Palomar Medical Center, covering every floor looking for patients interested in spending some time with a pet.

"You can count on her. This is somebody who takes her obligations so seriously, she requires herself to rise above anything that would interfere, including her own health," said Schaefer. "When I put her on that schedule, I know that visit is going to take place."

Rx Pets is just one element of Koppelman's volunteer habit, which began at a very young age when her mother, who taught first-aid classes, used her daughter as a model. Koppelman continued her volunteer work throughout a long career working in accounting for auto agencies and later for an educational film company in Hollywood.

She and her husband, Jules, quickly discovered the Joslyn Senior Center after moving to Escondido and finding it was difficult to make friends in a new area. Within six months, she was asked to join the center's nutrition council, for which she has served as president for "more years than I can remember."

The Joslyn Center is a city-owned and operated agency that provides programs, services and activities for older adults.

More volunteer work followed. At one point, she and Jules, who died in 1995, had business cards printed up listing their names over the title "Professional volunteer."

When asked how much time she puts into volunteering, Koppelman replied, "I don't like to think about it in those terms. If there's a job to be done, I get in and do it."

Contact staff writer Jeff Frank at (760) 740-5419, fax (760) &45-3769 or jfrank@nctimes.com.

To volunteer

Call RX Pets at (760) 745-6011

Joslyn Senior Center at (760) 839-4678.