Lehigh County’s Office of Aging and Adult Services celebrated recently with its 23rd annual tribute to Unsung Heroes at Fellowship Community, Whitehall Township.

More than a dozen older individuals and one group were recognized for their time and talents to support others in their communities.

The presentations were made by Clayton Reed Jr., executive director of the Office of Aging and Adult Services, Lehigh County Executive Phillips Armstrong and Secretary of Pennsylvania Department of Aging Jason Kavulich.

According to information provided by the Office of Aging and Adult Services, Dolores Ann Herr, of Allentown, was one of 18 Lehigh County residents and a group of nine people honored.

This tribute, in honor of Older Americans Month, celebrates older adults in the Lehigh Valley who have displayed exceptional generosity with their time and talents to enrich the lives of others in the community.

During this annual recognition ceremony, each honoree received a certificate from Lehigh County Aging and Adult Services, a certificate from the Pennsylvania Department of Aging, and citations from their local legislators.

They also received a book on the history of Lehigh County, an Unsung Hero pin, an Unsung Hero yard sign and flowers.

According to Herr’s tribute written by Ruth Brown, Lehigh Valley Health Network:

“It is my honor to nominate Ann Herr for the Lehigh County Unsung Hero Award. Ann has been a pet therapy volunteer with Lehigh Valley Health Network for 10 years and has given over 450 hours of service. Pet therapy volunteers bring their certified dogs into facilities to visit with patients, their families and staff. These visits can promote healing, reduce stress, lower blood pressure and lift spirits.

“Ann is an integral part of our pet therapy program, both as a volunteer who visits patients and staff and as our priceless trainer. Ann and her dog Nori have been visiting our patients and their families since 2013. In 2020 the pandemic changed the focus of our pet therapy program to include visiting clinical staff regularly, helping to reduce the stress levels that have increased with the demands brought about to the workforce due to COVID-19. Ann helped us redirect this focus and she now visits staff as frequently as patients.

“Quickly after joining as a volunteer, it was obvious Ann had talents we needed to help us grow our pet therapy program. We realized quickly we needed additional teams of therapy dogs visiting LVHN and needed a trainer to teach our new volunteer teams all about LVHN policies and procedures, and about maintaining patient privacy. Ann stepped up and offered her time without hesitation to make this happen. Ann has been an integral part in expanding our pet therapy program.

“Over the past eight years as our trainer, Ann has selflessly shared her talents and time to train numerous new pet therapy volunteers about LVHN policies and procedures. Once a new pet therapy volunteer has been onboarded, Ann reaches out to the volunteer to schedule three training visits at the LVH-Cedar Crest campus. During this time, she teaches the new volunteers about confidentiality and privacy, making sure they understand how to keep protected health information secure. She also teaches volunteers how to facilitate visits with a patient and how those visits differ from staff visits. She also provides helpful tips to the volunteers on how to address issues or concerns she observes with individual dogs.

“Ann focuses her time one-on-one with these new volunteers and their dogs, leaving them feeling comfortable and confident in their ability to interact and visit with patients and staff throughout the hospital facility.

“Ann also stresses how they are making a difference in people’s lives. Once the three shadowing visits have been completed with Ann, she provides us with a report on the new pair, indicating their readiness to join LVHN’s pet therapy program. Those who have successfully completed the training are ready to start visiting on their own. We trust Ann’s judgment and her consistency to provide the highest quality pet therapy teams.

“I can’t say enough about how valuable Ann’s service is to LVHN staff and our patients. Given the stresses health care workers have been dealing with since 2020, our pet therapy program has never been more important in reducing stress levels. With Ann’s help, we have grown our program significantly at this critical time. This would not have happened without Ann.

“Our patients and staff have benefitted tremendously from her service. Thank you, Ann!”