 Amber Moon, Youth Award recipient
As a frequent volunteer for St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers’ Spirit of Women events, Amber brings a positive attitude and zest for life. In addition to serving as a greeter, children’s activity organizer and setup/teardown assistant, Amber brings a fresh, youthful perspective to the subject of women’s health. Her mature and insightful opinions have fueled events for women of all ages.
Amber is also active in other areas of the hospital and community. During high school, she recruited more than 60 other students to participate in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. She also has taken a stance against bullying – often as the only person to befriend a new classmate or stand up to her own group of friends when they teased someone. Amber is prepared to face isolation if it means standing up for what she thinks is right.
“Amber Moon is a young woman with high principles and unwavering loyalty,” said her nominator Michele Wood, Women’s Services manager at St. Francis. “Amber has had the courage to remain true to her principles and not bend to the pressures of today’s maddening world.”
Amber resides in Greenwood, is a graduate of Greenwood High School and now attends Franklin College.
 For Caroline Fisher, a bit of “good old-fashioned anger” was the catalyst for her mission in life: To ensure that every woman who is sexually assaulted receives the emotional, medical and legal support she deserves.
In 1997, Caroline founded Center of Hope at St. Francis Hospital—Indianapolis, a treatment center that offers quiet, compassionate care to victims of sexual assault and works in partnership with local law enforcement agencies and victim advocates. So far, the center has served more than 400 survivors of sexual assault.
“My goals are to empower woman to regain themselves post-assault, to inspire nurses to be the advocates these women need and to educate the general public regarding the myths surrounding both sexual assault and our own sexuality,” Caroline said.
As part of that mission, Caroline and a co-worker launched Center of Hope for Youth, a sexual assault education and awareness program for schools. Caroline also educates law enforcement personnel, members of the clergy and even prosecutors about sexual assault and domestic violence issues.
Caroline said, “I am motivated by the hope that we can, someday, break the cycle of violence in our communities. If I can touch the lives of one survivor and her loved ones and initiate healing for that family, I have accomplished something!”
 A little more than two years ago, happiness was impossible to imagine for a group of seven women who all had experienced the loss of a child. Feeling isolated and alone, the seven women each found their way to Memories to Hold, a St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers program that offers support to families who experience miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death.
While the women were grieving the loss of their children, they each became pregnant. After participating in Memories to Hold meetings and sharing their thoughts with other parents, the women formed a separate group within the program to help each other work through the many fears surrounding their new pregnancies.
When their lives settled down after the births of their babies, the women decided they wanted to do something positive for others who were experiencing the same situation. The group took their ideas to administration in Women & Children’s Services at St. Francis Hospital, who thought it was a great idea. So, the six women – original member Kylee Jones of Columbus was unable to participate because of the long commute and student commitments – went through volunteer training, as well as bereavement training, which is the same program nurses attend. The women gave their program a name – Caring Companions – started working in August 2006 and added another member, Melonie Grisell, who had lost her daughter.
Now, the Caring Companions trade monthly on-call pager duties and are available at all times to those facing miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death. Also, the group has volunteered to do weekly one-hour visits with pregnant women who are in the hospital on doctor-directed bedrest, which can be very difficult.
Being with families and helping create memorial items, such as photos of the baby, hand molds and memory boxes, the Caring Companions help families begin healing. The women provide small comforts and give invaluable strength to families facing the loss of a child. The unit nurses love the program, and patients are incredibly grateful. These women have embodied spirit as they took a tragedy and turned it into something positive.
The group includes: Becky Cassinelli – Franklin Township, Christine Davis – southside Indianapolis, Melonie Grisell, Julie Jackson – Bargersville, Teresa Kirkhoff – Franklin Township, Anna Schmitt – Mooresville, and Mary Mouradian – Southport.
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