While Goshen Health professionals witness the fruits of their labor when their patients are made healthy through treatments, surgeries, and other medical care services, they took the time to celebrate each other’s dedication to compassionate care at The MACademy Awards on Tuesday, March 11. Goshen Health staff dressed up and gathered at Maple City Chapel for The MACadamey Awards – a play on The Academy Awards – to eat, enjoy each other’s company, and celebrate the accomplishments of those honored through an award ceremony, complete with commemorative trophies.
“Each year, we try to do a different theme while still keeping more of an upscale presentation because this truly is a night where we can make the colleagues feel special,” said Stephanie Andrade, Goshen Health director of volunteer and ambassador services and 2025 Management Action Council chair. “We can tell them every day while they’re doing their work that they’re doing a great job and show them compassion, accountability, respect, and excellence, but setting aside intentional time to recognize our people is also super important to us.”
The MACademy Awards are presented by Goshen Health’s Management Action Council to recognize Goshen Health staff members who continually exceed expectations, providing outstanding service at Goshen Health. Individual nominations were based on compassion, accountability, respect, and excellence. Individual and/or group nominations acknowledged customer service, high quality, patient safety, education, and innovation.
“We cannot have such a commitment to this community without recognizing the efforts that our colleagues pour into their patients and each other every single day,” said Andrade. “We like to come together yearly and have a celebration for our colleagues. The best part is that every nominee tonight was nominated by a peer. It could have been a leader nominating them, but it could also be frontline colleagues nominating frontline colleagues.”
One such employee included Goshen Health Food Service Cook Stephen Buckmaster, who received the award for Best Person in Customer Service. While initially taken by surprise, he was honored to win, and absolutely loves working alongside his Goshen Health family.
“Working for Goshen Health has been great,” Buckmaster said. “I've only been here less than a year, but cooking has always been my life. The Goshen Health team here is a family, and it's just like I'm cooking for my family. I enjoy working with everybody; I enjoy it every day. I love my job and I love where I work.”
Each of these awards is dependent on colleague nominations, and knowing that their efforts were noticed and valued by fellow colleagues made this high honor even sweeter for the winners.
“I’m speechless; this means the world to me,” said IT Applications Senior Manager Michelle Cochran, who won the Compassion Award. “I love the Goshen Health team like my family, and for them to recognize what I'm doing every day and how much I care for them just means the absolute world to me.”
Goshen Health has a variety of awards outside of The MACademy Awards, such as The Gardener Award and The DAISY Award. Follow Goshen Health on social media to keep up with the latest news, and for more information about Goshen Health and The MACademy Awards, visit goshenhealth.com.
