Tonight was the Leonard L. Berry Award for Service Excellence dinner at Nemours. It's an award given to four non-physicians in the entire organization and comes from internal nominations. I was one of ten finalists in the Delaware Valley. It was a dinner held at the Country Club with all of the senior Nemours leadership (all the CEOs!)
All dressed up with my handsome husband heading out the door.
Once there, we mingled for a little while and then sat down for dinner. The dinner was good and then they one by one called up and introduced each finalist and read their nomination. So I'm probably number 5 or 6 to be read. They call my name, I go up in front of everyone and the woman starts reading the nomination and it's not about me!! Like totally not about me, completely 100% not about me. I was having this internal debate about whether I should stop her from reading the nomination, all the while thinking "oh my God, they didn't mean for me to be a finalist!" It was really awkward and uncomfortable. So after she stops, I tell her "It's not about me." and it was really weird. Then someone else says "clearly, this nomination wasn't about Cory, but we assure you she is a finalist." So my supervisor, Dale, pops up and says "can I say something about Cory?" and she ad libs some of the things I have done, which was nice of her. So I sit down and am essentially in shock and just totally embarrassed and uncomfortable. I lean over to Dale and say, "Well there's no chance now that I can win, since I'm not even sure they meant for me to be a finalist." The rest of the finalists are announced and their nominations are read. Then Dr. Bailey, the CEO, gets up to announce the two winners. The first person isn't there, but a colleague accepts on her behalf. Then he says "The other winner is Cory Nourie." I was about shocked. I walked up the podium and stopped Dr. Bailey and said, "Are you sure it's me?" He told me yes. Then he shared that he hadn't heard my name until a few months ago when he had a patient family call him about her problems in the adult world. He called my physician partner and said "you need to do something about this." Her response was, "I'll have my social worker call them." He interjected, "No, this is a big deal. it's not a social work issue." She said, "Dave, you haven't met my social worker..." then he went on to say what a great job we've done in developing our program and how it's become a national model for other children's hospitals, etc. He ended with, "So Cory, I'm really sure you're the one."
Me with my crystal trophy...that bad boy is heavy!
Dr. Bailey and me.
Listening to him giving me the award.
My supervisor Dale and me.
Before dinner started.
Overall, it was a really memorable evening. I am incredibly honored to be a winner and feel incredibly lucky to work for Nemours, who supports what I do and celebrates my accomplishments.
