Connecting, Growing and Healing Through Volunteering After Injury

In the fall of 2018, 22-year-old Nathan Tunquist sustained a brain injury while attending college at Utah State. After a month in a coma, Nathan flew home to Colorado via Life Flight and spent three months at Craig.

About two years later, Nathan returned to Craig for outpatient therapy after sustaining a stroke. Once he was back at home in Westminster, Colorado, Nathan’s mother, Lisa, urged her son to find a hobby. “I started thinking that Nathan needed to find an activity that worked on his brain-body connection. It became clear that he needed to be using his mind and his hands, but because we were in the middle of COVID, there were not many opportunities for this. Luckily, I was able to find a pottery class, and we enrolled together.”

Nathan loved the class and turned his interest in pottery into a volunteering opportunity as part of Craig’s Community Reintegration Program.

“For the last year and a half, I have been volunteering each week in the pottery studio at the Westminster Recreation Center,” Nathan says. “I clean the studio and make sure all of the tools and materials are organized for each class. I absolutely love it because I feel like I am doing something to help other people, while I also get to learn about pottery.”

Lisa adds, “Volunteering at the studio has been great for Nathan’s confidence and language skills. He’s very good at his job, which makes him feel good about himself.”

Due to the effects from his stroke, Nathan struggles with reading, but he received a great deal of support from his Craig team. In fact, Casey Pfister, a community reintegration specialist at Craig, created a laminated poster outlining all of Nathan’s job duties, so it’s easy for him to follow and complete his daily tasks.

“I’ve been able to memorize all of my tasks, but I still like to use the poster as a refresher,” he explains.  

Nathan has been so happy spending time at the pottery studio that he approached Craig about developing an outpatient pottery class.

“We ended up putting together a four-week private pottery class for Craig outpatients,” he says. “Everyone learned how to make pottery, and I was able to work as the teacher’s assistant. It was such a good experience.”

And this is exactly the goal of the Give Initiative, a Craig program that seeks to enhance the physical, social and emotional well being of individuals after spinal cord and brain injury through volunteering.

“Volunteer work has a very positive effect on a person’s sense of well being, as well as their physical and mental health,” explains Erin Lovely, a Craig horticultural therapist and Give Initiative team member. “There are so many benefits, including connecting to others, feeling productive and satisfied, contributing to the community, decreasing depression, discovering a sense of purpose, and finding enjoyment.”

The Give Initiative—made up of an interdisciplinary team that works to open the door to volunteering—provides education for participants and organizations about the benefits of volunteering. In addition, the team develops strategies to support active participation, introduces volunteering to patients and grads, and recruits these individuals for opportunities. 

The team also works to establish community partnerships for volunteer experiences. This entails seeking out appropriate organizations and working together with each organization’s volunteer coordinator and making referrals.

Currently, Craig’s Give Initiative works with numerous organizations, including the Butterfly Pavilion, Denver Botanic Gardens, Grow & Gather, Reading Partners, and Bikes Together.

“Craig grads are the largest group of volunteers because they have the ability to independently access the community,” says Barry Doyle, community reintegration supervisor at Craig. “But we also work with outpatients and inpatients to build awareness, provide exposure and offer support. Our goal is to meet volunteers where they are.”

For Nathan, volunteering has been an extremely positive experience. In fact, he recently added the Butterfly Pavilion to his volunteering schedule. “Each week, I clean the butterfly area and work with the butterfly incubator,” he says. “I like the work because I am learning so much about butterflies. It also gives me somewhere to be and keeps me very busy.”

Interested in learning more about the Give Initiative? Connect with the team at giveinitiative@craighospital.org or fill out this interest form.