Brookline Medical Reserve Corps Names New Award After Tireless Volunteer

Trudy Cohen tried retirement once, but it just didn't stick.

A social worker by training, Cohen came back from a brief stint in warmer climates more than five years ago and threw herself into volunteer work across Brookline, first with the Senior Center and later with the Medical Reserve Corps. Now some of the people she worked with before her death in May have created a volunteerism award in her honor.

The Trudy Cohen Volunteer Award, which was award posthumously to Cohen herself at the annual joint reception of the Community Emergency Response Team and the Medical Reserve Corps this week, is meant to recognize people who embody the spirit of volunteerism, according to Dawn Sibor, director of emergency preparedness for the Brookline Health Department.

"She sort of epitomizes a volunteer," Sibor said. "She was always willing to come out, wiling to go the extra mile, willing to do pretty much anything."

Sibor said Cohen started with the Medical Reserve Corps just as it was starting five years ago, volunteer first at seasonal flu clinics then moving on to other projects. She also served as a member of the Council on Aging and performed a number of tasks for the Senior Center, working craft fairs and boutiques sales, answering phones and helping the center prepare for emergencies.

Cohen was known around town as a tireless worker who never turned a project down and loved to swap recipes and regale her follow volunteers with stories of her travels abroad. She passed away in May at the age of 84.

"She was like the perfect volunteer," said Ruthanne Dobek, director of the Brookline Senior Center. "She would volunteer for everything and then quietly go about her business in a serious and thoughtful way, and you could almost forget she was involved in so many tasks because she just did it with such confidence and competency."

Cohen's family accepted the award on her behalf at a meeting of more than 100 volunteers at the Brookline Main Library on July 13.

"It really just summarize in such a lovely way what she was about," said Mark Winkeller, Cohen's grandson and the executive director of Caritas Communities.  "Hopefully this award will be inspirational for others to follow in her footsteps and do more volunteer work."

Sibor said the Medical Reserve Corps plans to recognize a new volunteer each year with the Cohen Volunteer Award.