Volunteer leader Sheila Young honored with 2020 Lotus Award

Sheila Young, long-time board member, donor, and all-around champion of Mission Hospice, will receive the 2020 Lotus Award at our 41st Anniversary Celebration in January. Created in 2005, the annual award recognizes individuals who have shown outstanding support of the organization.

Sheila’s commitment to ensuring that our community has exceptional end-of-life care has been generous and unwavering. A real estate attorney, she served as a member of our Board of Directors from 2006-2019, was Chair of the Board in 2010-2011, and over the years served on the Executive Committee, Development Committee, Lotus Award Committee, and Nominating Committee. She is also a long-time member of the Peninsula Italian American Club committee that organizes the annual Night of Fun dinner-dance that benefits Mission Hospice patients.

“Mission Hospice has been and will always be one of my passions,” says Sheila. “In my time on the Board, I was lucky enough to work with a team of dedicated Board members, generous Auxiliary members, inspiring volunteers, enthusiastic donors, and an amazing and compassionate staff. I am so grateful for all  of them.”

Lotus Award Committee chair Mary Chigos says that a number of people nominated Sheila for the award because of her long years of service, professional leadership, and generosity. “Over the years, Board Chairs who came before her and after her have called on Sheila for her insight and wisdom. She’s such a steady, conscientious person.” Sheila and her husband Jim Linehan have frequently offered their Hillsborough home for Mission Hospice functions.

Adella Harris, recipient of the very first Lotus Award, says, “There aren’t enough superlatives to do justice to Sheila’s long years of service to Mission Hospice. Her professional skills in real estate and law have been a real blessing. Her open-hearted philanthropy has been bottomless. She has done so much to advance the mission of our agency, and has done it with grace and humor.”