October 27, 2000

With harmonica and guitar in hand, folksinger and storyteller Arlo Guthrie entertained more than 1,000 supporters of the Kenneth B. Schwartz Center at its fifth annual dinner Oct. 18 at Boston's Westin Hotel. Each year, the event celebrates the mission of the center – to promote compassionate health care and strengthen the important relationship between patients and caregivers.

Another highlight of the evening was a video presentation entitled "The Schwartz Center Rounds: Voices of Caregivers," featuring the rounds at Emerson Hospital in Concord, one of nine hospitals in New England currently conducting these multidisciplinary meetings. The Compassionate Caregiver Award was presented to Judith Best-Lavigniac, RN, MSN, FNP, a nurse practitioner who works with the homeless population on Cape Cod. The Schwartz Center created the award last year as a way of honoring caregivers who display extraordinary compassion in caring for patients.

Kenneth B. Schwartz was a prominent health care lawyer who died in 1995 of lung cancer.

Arlo Guthrie