A ‘Fly-on-the-Wall’ Perspective on the Present Moment at PCV

I am one of those mainly anonymous people who make the work of Patient Choices Vermont possible. Like you, I know how much better I feel knowing that medical aid in dying (MAID) is available to me and my loved ones. Like many of you, I regularly donate money to PCV to help ensure that this right remains legally available and, as importantly, becomes available in practice to more and more people as time goes on. ​

Like some of you (and I happen to know exactly who, as I am the volunteer who enters those donations into our database!), I just sent PCV a year-end donation to take advantage of the matching funds that are doubling all donations through the end of the year. Yes, that is a pointed reminder... Why, look! There's a handy DONATE button!

Donate Now for Year-end Match!

Or mail a check to:
Patient Choices Vermont
PO Box 671
Shelburne, VT 05482

Please Note: Any checks dated 2024 will still qualify for the match!

PCV is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. Your contributions are tax-deductible.

---

Thank you for your donation!

Now I’d like to offer a little ‘fly-on-the-wall’ perspective on the present moment here at Patient Choices Vermont.

My viewpoint, and therefore my insight into just how PCV works is a little unusual. Yes, I do some volunteer work here at PCV. I enter those checks and PayPal donations and I often have a hand in editing these newsletters. But much more than that, I am in a position to have seen on a day-to-day basis how my partner, Betsy Walkerman, has kept her steady, capable, dedicated hand at the helm of this organization. I see, hear and discuss over dinner the complex navigation of systems of government, law, medicine, finance, media and politics that it takes to make the consistent headway, the progress, the expansion of MAID access and acceptance that characterizes the work of PCV.

Beyond the skill and knowledge Betsy has brought to this work in spades, this dear person has also offered to PCV, and quite frankly to you and me, the great heart and courage it takes to always keep in the forefront of one’s mind and soul the knowledge that death will come -- knowledge most of us have the blessed ability to ignore most of the time.  

For the past year, I have also witnessed how Betsy has taken that same courageous stance of acceptance as she looks at the future of this organization. No one lives forever -- not you, not me, not her. The important work that PCV does, however, needs to live on. Having spent more than twenty years with a hand in the efforts it took to get Act 39 passed, and then having taken the leadership reins from her parents when they eventually died (both happy and grateful for access to aid in dying), Betsy came to realize that she had become, in a sense, too essential to the running of PCV. As she entered her 70s, still healthy, but also, well, you know, 70, she felt it right to make an important life priority choice for herself.

For over a year now, Betsy has meticulously charted and catalogued all the skills, abilities, connections, collaborations, networks and other myriad details of how PCV works. With the able support of the PCV board, she has formulated a plan and a budget appropriate to a new, resilient ongoing leadership structure. Together they searched and interviewed, evaluated, found and hired a remarkably capable and appropriate new executive director, Amy Bruce. For the past month, Betsy has begun the work of taking her carefully assembled catalogue of knowledge and offering her mentorship to the new leader, who in just three days, will officially take charge of PCV.

Betsy will remain with PCV as a member of the board of directors and will continue her mentorship and advisory role. She will also have the blessed ability to put a greater share of her attention to the new, growing lives of her grandchildren, to playing the music she loves and, like you and me, putting thoughts of death and dying a bit more to the side. She can now be secure in the knowledge that the work of PCV will endure so that when those thoughts come crashing in again, as we all must admit they will, medical aid in dying will be available should she want to make that choice.

Right now, your donation will go twice as far toward continuing the legacy Betsy has built throughout the years. Please join me in supporting PCV’s crucial work as Vermont’s steward of aid in dying.
​
With best wishes and appreciation,

Jonathan Crocker
PCV Volunteer

---