Navy Service Member Wins Award For Volunteering At Capital Caring

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — Capital Caring Health volunteer Sabre Poimboeuf, an active duty service member in the U.S. Navy, was named Adult Volunteer Award Winner by Volunteer Fairfax for the time she spent meeting with veterans as part of the hospice organization's Veterans Program. Poimboeuf won the award in Volunteer Fairfax's 250-hours-and-under category.

Along with Poimboeuf's individual award, Capital Caring Health was named the 2020 Volunteer Program of the Year by Volunteer Fairfax for demonstrating a "significant contribution to the community."

“I’m extremely proud of our more than 1,400 active volunteers and the impact they make on the community every day,” Capital Caring Health President and CEO Tom Koutsoumpas said in a statement.

In 2019, Capital Caring Health volunteers performed more than 58,000 hours of service to the community, conducting military ceremonies like the ones Poimboeuf coordinated, as well as serving as patient companions and providing transportation and pet care.

Poimboeuf, who is stationed at Fort Belvoir, enhanced Capital Caring Health’s military recognition program, including instituting an official flag folding, presenting veterans with challenge coins (a military tradition), and reading the poem "The Watch" to all U. S. Navy veterans, according to Capital Caring Health.

"You give so willingly of your time and your talents, and it matters to our veterans," Katherine Knoble, a manager of community and volunteer engagement for Capital Caring Health, said in a statement.

Knoble, who nominated Poimboeuf for the award, said she remembered the Navy service member telling her the reason she meets with veterans in hospice care is because veterans wore the uniform proudly and served well and that she wanted to do the same.

"You're definitely doing that," Knoble said. "Your leadership is amazing."

Due to the coronavirus crisis, Volunteer Fairfax moved its Annual Fairfax County Volunteer Service Awards to a virtual platform. Each honoree has a uniquely crafted celebration board, called a Kudoboard.

On her Kudoboard, Poimboeuf was recognized for giving time and energy to her volunteering, even though she is an active duty service member in the Navy.

One example of her volunteer work was a celebration she planned for a career Naval officer who was facing end of life. She gathered more than 15 Navy sailors, dressed in their dress uniforms, and together paid a visit to this veteran who was bedridden and in a nursing home.

"Surrounded by family, she presented the veteran with a certificate of appreciation, a military lapel pin, a challenge coin and conducted a flag folding in front of the veteran," a retired colonel wrote on Pimboeuf's Kudoboard. "The sailors sang 'Anchors Aweigh' and there was not a dry eye in the room."