Three Generations of Volunteers

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Eastburn Family Photo

Three generations of BHF volunteers (clockwise from lower left): Jane and Albert Eastburn, a former foundation chairman; their granddaughter, Chelsea Spiegelhalder; and their daughter-in-law, Laurie Eastburn

A Three-Generation Family Affair

For nonprofit organizations like the Brandywine Health Foundation, volunteers are critically important. Consider Al Eastburn, his wife Jane and their family: three generations that have provided the foundation with invaluable service.

A former chairman of the Coatesville Hospital board of directors, Mr. Eastburn is a long-time former member of the foundation’s board of directors and served as the foundation’s first vice chair and its second chair. Mrs. Eastburn has served on and chaired the committee of our Garden Party fundraiser. Their daughter-in-law, Laurie Eastburn, also has been a committee member for eight years. And after volunteering at the Garden Party for eight years, Chelsea Spiegelhalder—an Eastburn granddaughter—has joined the committee too.

Mr. Eastburn, a former president of the Lukens Steel Company, also served on the advisory board of Brandywine Hospital. “From the outset,” he says of the Brandywine Health Foundation, “health was the key issue, and that’s what drove most of us to bring ChesPenn Health Services to Coatesville and eventually house them and dental and mental health providers in the Brandywine Center. Combining that with subsidized senior housing in the same building is rather unique.”

Adds his wife Jane, a former Coatesville Hospital nurse who also used to help out at the consignment shop that benefits the foundation: “Volunteering to raise money in order to do good things for the community that otherwise might not get done is important.”

Given Laurie Eastburn’s profession—she is an administrator who handles funding and contracts for the Chester County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Office—her involvement with the foundation is understandable. “Like my office, the foundation adds to the health of the community,” she says. “The health care providers in the Brandywine Center all support a lot of the individuals who my office works with as well, and the Coatesville Youth Initiative is also something that I think will continue to grow and help the community.”

Chelsea Spiegelhalder, who began community service volunteering as a middle-school hospital candy striper, has also volunteered at the Strawberry Festival. Says Spiegelhalder, a recent graduate of Salus University’s physician assistant master’s degree program: “During my clinical rotations in Philadelphia I saw a lot of patients who were under- or uninsured. They need a lot of help. That’s why the work the foundation does is so important.”