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Alec Rogers, CAREGiver of the Year 2006
Northbrook, Illinois
Home Instead Senior Care Co-Founder Lori Hogan called CAREGiver of the Year Alec Rogers a "superstar - one who helps Home Instead Senior Care shine brilliantly by touching clients' lives each and every day."
A plant pathologist and former researcher for DuPont, he has lived and traveled all over the world. However, Rogers' favorite place is right at home in suburban Chicago - close to his clients. In fact, he even foregoes what for years had been an annual winter trip to Florida with his wife Franny. She now travels south when the cold weather arrives, while Rogers stays behind to tend to his caregiving responsibilities.
"I love the work. It keeps me young," he said. "As a Home Instead CAREGiver, I'm serving my clients, their families and the Lord," Alec said. He certainly doesn't do it for the money, since he donates his paychecks to charity. Franchise owners Fran Wilkens and Steve Glassman said, "Alec exhibits the kind of caring and compassion that one wishes were characteristic of all human beings." And staff member Ryan Krueger believes "if there were not a CAREGiver of the Year award already, it would need to be created for his devotion to the clients."
For instance, one of Alec's major clients is a retired doctor, with whom he lives when the physician's wife travels. In this case, CAREGiver and client have formed a very strong bond. "Once, when I was bent over tying 'Doc's' shoelaces, he kissed me on the top of the head. When I asked him why he did this, he said, 'Because you take better care of me than my brother would'," Alec explained.
During his award acceptance speech, Alec spoke eloquently about his time as a CAREGiver. "I have been enriched . . . through the satisfaction I gain by fulfilling the needs of my clients - by giving them full measure and thus helping them retain their independence, dignity and self-respect," he said. "It has been the most rewarding and satisfying stage of my entire 75 years of richly blessed living."