News Release

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Suki Deen, University Relations Associate
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New Castle, DE 19720
(302) 295-1164
FAX (302) 295-1137
suki.r.deen@wilmu.edu

Local Nightingale Sings for Veterans and Community

November 30, 2007—Perryville, MD. Wilmington University graduate student and recording artist Dee Jones will be performing for veterans and healthcare staff at the Perry Point VA Hospital in Perryville, MD this December.

Dee Jones is a Harford County, MD. native and a current graduate student in the Nursing leadership program at Wilmington University. Jones, a nurse by profession, has a soft spot when it comes to giving back to the military servants of our country.

The “Soldiers Sing-Along” will take place on Unit 23 of the Perry Point Hospital, on Sunday, December 2 at 2 pm. Jones will lead the veterans, their families and the medical personnel of the VA in favorite Christmas carols. Jones will also sing a song from her new CD “Nurse's Anthem” in tribute to the healthcare staff of the Perry Point Hospital.

“I think some of the biggest heroes of today are the health care workers serving in the military,” offered Jones, a resident of Aberdeen.

In addition to familiar choruses, Jones will be delivering handmade quilts to the veterans at Perry Point with some friends from Oak Grove Baptist Church in Bel Air.

The December VA “Sing-Along” is the latest stop in a series of military events where Jones has delivered songs of appreciation and patriotism to America's veterans. Previously, Jones sang for U.S. troops in a Pentagon concert with the VA National Medical Musical Group in a Valentine's Day musical to soldiers.

Jones has been inspired by the modern founder of nursing, Florence Nightingale, who first carried the torch for the profession in the late 1800's, encouraging nurses to use their hearts and hands in caring for the sick.

“I felt at age 5, I wanted to be a nurse and that's all I wanted to do,” shared Jones.

Florence Nightingale also knew as a child that she had the desire to nurse the sick. Like her kindred spirit Nightingale, Jones had to wait until her thirties to practice nursing.

The “Nurse's Anthem” song is the result of a challenge issued to Jones by the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health (NIGH). NIGH's members work to empower nurses, health care workers and educators to become modern Nightingales in the local, national, and global communities.

Jones enjoys teaching nurses and recently served as a professor in the nursing program at Harford Community College.

Jones is passionate about the healing potential of music and she wants to affect others with the refrain she sings. As a nurse at Perry Point Veteran's Hospital, in Cecil County, she has been known to sing to a few patients while delivering medical care. Jones works full time as a nurse while pursuing her master's degree in Nursing Leadership from Wilmington University.

To hear a sound clip of “Nurse's Anthem” on the Internet, visit http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/deejones2

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