Debbie Long wins July 2010 Jefferson Award

Debbie Long, an administrative assistant at the Christiana Care Center for Outcomes Research, is the July 2010 Christiana Care Jefferson Award winner for her community and public service in Delaware and in post-Hurricane Katrina Louisiana. Long assists Compassionate Care Hospice inpatients as well as patients in their private homes, providing emotional support and offering caregivers much-needed respite from the demands of care. She also provides families with bereavement services after the loss of a loved one.

She responded vigorously to the needs of families following Hurricane Katrina. In the immediate aftermath of the 2005 hurricane, she volunteered for three weeks at several shelters in Louisiana, cooking breakfast, and provided beleaguered residents with emotional support and social-services referral information. She even helped clean one shelter to make it safe for the desperate public. In March 2010 she returned to New Orleans for a week to help a family build a new house.

Long has two daughters with Type I diabetes and volunteers with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. She has served on the board of directors of the Delaware Chapter for more than 20 years, helps the organization in fundraising and government relations, operates support groups and organizes events.