LOS ANGELES, Oct. 10, 2008 – Cherokee Uniforms announced today 10 winners of the 2008 Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award. The recipients represent a cross-section of healthcare facilities, from world-class cancer centers and rural nursing homes to regional hospitals and universities. Although each winner has their own distinct story about caring for others, all of them share the same mission day after day: to provide the best care possible to those in need.

"These 10 recipients illustrate why nurses and other healthcare professionals are so respected by the American public," said Michael Singer, president of Cherokee Uniforms. "The Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award exists to acknowledge the exemplary service of healthcare professionals who aim to improve the lives of others in significant ways. We hope these remarkable stories will encourage the nation's brightest students to enter the healthcare professions."  

A panel of Cherokee representatives and past Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award recipients selected the honorees. The candidates were nominated for their exceptional service, sacrifice and innovation in one of five categories: Advanced Practice Nurse, Registered Nurse, Licensed Practical Nurse/Licensed Vocational Nurse, Student Nurse and Non-Physician Healthcare Professional.

This year's Grand Prize, Top National and National Winners are:

Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs)

Grand Prize Winner – Roseanne Warner, RN, MSN, WHNP – U.S. Air Force Base, Aviano, Italy
Warner came to the aid of a woman in need of diabetic medicine during an overseas commercial flight. She cared for her throughout the flight and was able to rally passengers for a glucometer and needles and personally paid another passenger for insulin. The very next month, when her child's teacher missed an important school trip due to illness and then didn't sound like himself on the phone, Warner sensed that something was wrong and drove to the teacher's house. She combed the neighborhood and found the teacher incoherent and on the sidewalk. She rushed him to the hospital, where she learned that he was suffering from meningitis. Had she not intervened, the teacher would have died.

Top National Winner – Normadeane Armstrong, RN, MSN, ANP, APRN-BC – Molloy College, Rockville Centre, NY
Armstrong led an international research symposium on Congenital Rubella Syndrome that attracted medical professionals, rehabilitation providers, representatives from 10 countries, the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and individuals inflicted with the disease and their family members. She uses her expertise to make her community a safer place to live and work. Education is her passion, and she has instituted a hand-washing program in a local preschool and has conducted pool safety and CPR classes in her home. One of her neighbors used the knowledge to save a child's life. She also helped form an allergy-friendly soccer league and has gone door-to-door to inform residents about the risk of breast cancer.

Registered Nurses (RNs)

Grand Prize Winner – Laurie Van Damme, RN, BN – Brandon Regional Hospital, Brandon, FL
In addition to overseeing the delivery of care to patients in labor and delivery, Van Damme devotes her time to the hospital's perinatal bereavement program and has created Cherished Moments, a touching remembrance for families facing an unimaginable loss, the death of a baby. Striving to provide parents with an emotional connection to their baby, Van Damme takes photos to create a memorial scrapbook and DVD. Her additions to the bereavement program at Brandon Regional Hospital have helped numerous families cope with the loss of their babies.

Top National Winner – Rita Stern, RN, BS, BSN – Poudre Valley Hospital, Fort Collins, CO
Stern helps terminally ill patients at Poudre Valley Hospital deal with two of their greatest concerns: pain management and unfinished business. She works late nights and early mornings to help patients in their struggles, whether that means videotaping personal messages for the young children of a  parent with terminal cancer or going that extra step to ensure their comfort. A dedicated mentor, Stern is equally committed to teaching other nurses how to best care for the terminally ill as they learn the skills of end-of-life care.  

National Winner – Mary Ellen Mitchell-Rosen, RN, BSN, MSN – Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Mitchell-Rosen devotes her personal time to helping the poor and people in desperate need of healthcare. A volunteer for the Cooperative Feeding Program of Fort Lauderdale, she teaches nutrition classes and started a program to help the hungry value and pursue well-balanced diets. She taught them how to build box gardens, plant and harvest – to provide a constant supply of nutritious food to those in need. Today, about 100 gardens are located in schools, children centers and where there is a need for nutritious food throughout Fort Lauderdale.

National Winner – Lisa Scholl, RN – Orchard Manor, Lancaster, WI
Scholl puts in long hours to ensure that her patients are getting the care they deserve. She is known for re-energizing patients who are going through emotional strife. One hospice resident was expected to pass away shortly after his admittance into the home; under Scholl's care, he began eating and was frequently seen outside of his room. Many of the patients Scholl cares for suffer from dementia. Despite difficult and frustrating behaviors by some of the most challenging patients, Scholl has earned the admiration of colleagues and her former manager for her understanding, sensitivity and patience.

National Winner – David Zullo, RN, EMT-P, Marrero, LA
When Zullo heard an electrical explosion, the off-duty volunteer paramedic and former marine raced toward the scene to save a man who had been electrocuted. He balanced on a secured beam nearly 30 feet above the ground to reach the injured man – whose weight he supported for nearly 30 minutes until emergency help arrived. Today, the young man lives because of Zullo's heroic and selfless actions.

Licensed Practical Nurses/Licensed Vocational Nurses (LPNs/LVNs)

Grand Prize Winner – Melannie Miller, LPN, CLTC – North Kansas City Internal Medicine, Kansas City, MO
Miller's passion is to improve the lives of those who have no place to live and who otherwise would fall between the cracks of the healthcare system. She leaves the comfort and safety of her office to provide valuable, life-changing health monitoring and education to the homeless on her own time. In addition, she has developed patient education systems, indigent drug enrollment programs and elder and veteran healthcare workshops. She also works with a marine unit teaching first aid, nutrition and CPR. 

Student Nurses

Grand Prize Winner – Irene Sekle, CNAII, CPBT – Queens University of Charlotte, Charlotte, NC
Although Sekle left her native land of Liberia to pursue her childhood dream of nursing, she hasn't lost sight of home. A student at the Presbyterian School of Nursing at Queens University of Charlotte, she already is investing her newfound skills and resourcefulness to help future nurses in the African nation. Sekle has collected more than 400 nursing textbooks and shipped them to a Liberian nursing school at her own expense—accruing more than $1,000 in shipping fees. She also has made trips to Liberia to provide assistance with healthcare.

Non-Physician Healthcare Professionals

Grand Prize Winner – Eucharia Iwuanyanwu, DHSC, PA-C, DFAAPA – M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX
As a young girl living in her homeland of Nigeria, Iwuanyanwu vividly recalls the pain her grandfather had to endure while suffering with gastrointestinal cancer, a disease that took his life. Drawing on her past and her passion, Iwuanyanwu founded a medical nonprofit whose mission is to eliminate cancer in Africa. She organized an African Educational Cancer Conference in Abuja, Nigeria and planned a cancer-awareness medical mission to Katsina, Nigeria. Due to her valiant efforts as a physician assistant, hundreds of people had the opportunity to be screened for the disease and educated on prevention and the need for early detection.

Since the Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award was established six years ago, nearly 7,000 healthcare professionals have been nominated—more than 1,600 in 2008. The grand prize winner in each category will receive an all-expense-paid Caribbean cruise for two. Additional prize winners in each category will each receive an all-expense-paid trip to a 2009 U.S. medical conference and an annual membership to a clinical association. Additionally, top national winners will receive a donation of $500 to a nonprofit organization.  All award winners will receive a trophy, a medical wardrobe of Cherokee scrubs and Cherokee Footwear, and will be included in the nationally distributed Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award 2009 calendar.

For every nomination, Cherokee Uniforms donates $1 to Nurse's House, a national fund that provides short-term financial assistance to registered nurses facing serious hardship. Proceeds from Cherokee Uniforms products support healthcare professionals through initiatives such as the Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award, an annual calendar and the A Nurse I Am Film and Scholarship Program. Cherokee Uniforms will be accepting nominations for the 2009 Cherokee Inspired Comfort Award beginning March 1st through May 31st, 2009. For further information on the program, please visit www.InspiredComfort.com.

Editor's Note: Individual releases and photos of each winner are available by contacting:

Krista Goch
Brunner, Inc.
412-995-9597
kgoch@brunnerworks.com

About Cherokee Uniforms

Cherokee Uniforms, Tooniforms and Cherokee Footwear are leading brands in healthcare apparel, recognized for helping to foster a warmer, friendlier, more comfortable environment for healthcare workers and their patients. For more information, visit www.CherokeeUniforms.com.