The Roy Hatch Award for Outstanding Advocacy

Dr. Roy Hatch found a second career after retiring from NASA: Innovative volunteer service for Lifeline Chaplaincy. Roy was highly involved in pastoral care with patients at St. Luke's and Methodist Hospitals, and along with Barry Curtis was instrumental in launching the curriculum and implementation of the "Creating a Healing Community" workshops. In his memory, we honor those who have provided high quality, extraordinary support to the Compassionate Touch program which targets financial support of patients' non-medical needs. Previous recipients are: Sarah Jernigan, Econ-Lodge's PATEL family (Jay, Madhu, Nelum), and Lauren Barrash.

The 2006 Roy Hatch Award recipient is Courtney Coolidge. While in the throes of a life-threatening battle with cancer, Courtney made a life-changing decision - she would see to it that others going through similar circumstances would find the comfort and solace she had through the soft touch of a stuffed doll.