Natick’s Robert Dunn was among 26 honorees of the Myra Kraft Community MVP Award for outstanding volunteerism, and was presented with a $10,000 donation for Care Dimensions, the hospice program to which he devotes so much time. The awards ceremony was held at Gillette Stadium earlier this month.
According to Kraft family and the New England Patriots Foundation, Dunn earned his recognition for the many hours he spends visiting patients each week in a veterans-to-veterans program.
“I served as a petty officer second class in the U.S. Navy from 1968 to 1972. I decided I wanted to devote my hospice volunteering time to other veterans,” Dunn said in a statement. “Whatever service you were in, it’s like a brotherhood. When I first meet a patient, I say I’m a Navy vet and visit vets wherever they live. I ask them about their family first, then their service. I focus the discussion on what they like so I can learn how to support them.”
Dunn’s wife spent her final days in hospice care before passing away in 1998 at the age of 52. Dunn determined then to dedicate his free time to the hospice program, having seen the important of support for grieving people.
Care Dimensions services 100 communities across the state.
The Kraft family and the New England Patriots Foundation received more than 250 applications this year from nonprofit organizations looking to recognize their volunteers.
Procter & Gamble’s John Claughton, Patriots Chairman and CEO Robert Kraft, Natick award recipient Robert Dunn, and Patriots and Pro Football Hall of Famer Andre Tippett (photo courtesy of Eric J. Adler/New England Patriots)
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