Community health care award recipients named
Register Pajaronian, March 23, 2006
By Amanda Schoenberg
Watsonville Community Hospital lead radiologic technologist Mary Boyd is not a doctor, but she is an expert on helping locals weather the storm of cancer treatment.
Boyd’s years of dedication, along with the Central Coast Alliance
for Health, will be honored with the 2006 Phil Rather Award for Leadership
in Health Care at a ceremony May 17 at the Pajaro Valley Health Trust.
“These awardees were singled out because they model the qualities of
leadership in health care that reflect the spirit of the Rather Award, and
they do so in ways that make them stand out among their peers,” PV Community
Health Trust Board Chair Edward Din said in a written statement.
The Alliance, formed in 1996, is a community-based plan that provides managed
health care services for low-income residents. The nonprofit has 85,000
members in its Medi-Cal, Healthy Families, Healthy Kids and Alliance Care
In-home Supportive Services for Homecare Workers programs in Santa Cruz
and Monterey counties.
Alan McKay, executive director of the Central Coast Alliance for Health,
said he was thrilled at news of the award, which he said measured the organization’s
success in the Pajaro Valley, where it serves 21,000 members.
The Pajaro Valley “is a very big area of focus for us,” McKay
said. “We’ve been working for many years on improving access
and quality of care here.”
Boyd — with WCH since 1989 — has volunteered with the Susan
G. Komen Foundation and Jacob’s Heart, chaired the American Cancer
Society’s Relay for Life event, organized support services for cancer
survivors, educated women on heart disease and is now spearheading local
efforts to put a tobacco tax on the ballot.
“With all the things that Phil Rather did for the community, I’m
totally in awe that I would get this,” Boyd said.
Rather, who died last year at the age of 75, was for more than 30 years
a champion of health care for local residents.
Boyd credited friends, coworkers and family members who joined her efforts
as fellow recipients and hoped the award would inspire others to volunteer,
she said.
“Hopefully, people can see that I’m not a doctor, I’m not
rich, but people can find it in themselves to do something,” she said. “For
me, it’s cancer. But it could be anything — as long as people find
something in their hearts.”
A survivor of cervical cancer, Boyd said her experience working with young
women with low self-esteem and crooked bandanas to hide hair loss from
cancer treatment kicked her into gear. She set out to prove that “cancer
is not a dirty word” by working with Latinas to fight the stigma
of cancer in the Watsonville community.
Boyd is “very much a patient advocate,” said Steven Walters,
director of radiology at WHC. “It’s nice having her on our
team.”
Javier Vargas, Boyd’s brother-in-law, said if it had not been for
Boyd, his family would not have joined a team at the Cabrillo College Relay
for Life. Relay for Life, which began in 1985, is a 24-hour community celebration
that raises money to fight cancer.
Without Boyd’s work at Relay for Life events in Soquel and at Cabrillo,
the event would not have gathered enough steam to make a successful move
to the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville in 2004, Vargas added.
“She is very knowledgeable in the health care arena,” said Vargas,
who now serves as chair of the event after Boyd stepped down the position. “I’ve
learned so much from her.”
News of the award preceded the kickoff for this year’s Relay for
Life at the Pajaro Valley Health Trust, 85 Nielsen St., which runs today
from 6-8 p.m.
In addition to speakers and results from last year’s event, the kickoff
gives individuals who want to honor cancer survivors and caregivers a chance
to sign up and organize teams. Relay for Life is scheduled for Aug. 12
at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds.