Forging Bonds in the Face of Illness

List of winners in the Nonprofit Organizations category  

By now, you’ve surely seen the “Why Here?” billboards plastered around Seattle, calling attention to the Pacific Northwest’s elevated incidence of multiple sclerosis, which is among the highest rates in the world.

“Is it the water?” they ask. “Is it the trees?”

Though the answers to these questions remain unclear, patients and families coping with MS in Seattle can take heart in the efforts of the Greater Washington Chapter of the National MS Society, the group behind those billboards. The chapter provides support and services to more than 9,000 MS patients—and the 50,000 relatives, friends and health care professionals who interact with them. The chapter also offers financial assistance for prescriptions, social events for singles, a children’s summer camp and weekend retreats for couples, among other services.

It’s an incredible place to work, thanks in large part to the managerial style of Patty Shepherd-Barnes, chapter president since 2000. As a young woman, Shepherd-Barnes found herself widowed with three children. She’d been working part-time for the Arthritis Foundation, but she hesitated when offered a full-time position there.

“I was really worried about it. I had three young children and no family living in the area,” Shepherd-Barnes says. But her employers granted her the freedom to see her son’s baseball games, to be a den mother and a Bluebird leader. In turn, Shepherd-Barnes worked harder than she thought she could, and she remembers the treatment she received there.

“I’ve always been appreciative of that,” she says. “I put in time-and-a-half because they gave me time.”

Shepherd-Barnes’ experience at the Arthritis Foundation helped shape her leadership style. Granting flexibility to the employee and getting hard work in return is the foundation on which the MS Society’s Washington chapter stands. But the group also offers employees assistance with continuing education, merit-based bonuses and a host of other benefits. Add in the emotional rewards of helping to improve people’s lives, and it’s no wonder that the chapter’s 24 employees love