Each year, the HFA staff recognizes the national spirit and remarkable volunteerism for HFA with the #bleedingdisorders community. As #VolunteerAppreciationMonth comes to a close this week, we will be recognizing award winners from #HFA2017. Today, we remember Star Tyree, a long-time HFA supporter, volunteer, and friend.
Starlyn (Star) Tyree was a former Executive Director locally and at the national level, an HFA board member and long-time Helping Hands committee member. She was recently lost to all of us and our deepest sympathies go out to her family. We are so very grateful to have had Star in our lives and thankful for the treasures of time and talent she shared with us. She will always be a Helping Hands Hero who touched hundreds of lives each year. Her son, Matthew McIntyre attended HFA’s 2017 Symposium in Providence, Rhode Island to accept on her behalf.
Our Helping Hands Committee consists of a team of 5 individuals who are committed to our charitable organization and the families we serve. They review well over 300 blinded applications for support every year and evaluate whether HFA’s Helping Hands support will benefit the family involved. They are a tight knit team with the loss of this member has been hard. They provided the following statement as part of Star’s nomination for the Volunteer of the Year Award:
Star Tyree was a volunteer extraordinaire. She worked as well as volunteered in the Hemophilia community for many years. She was the Executive Director of the Indiana chapter. She was the Director of Community Resource Coordinators for a specialty pharmacy. She served on the board of HFA for several years and was an active member for the planning committee and then later, Helping Hands.
Even though Star didn’t have a family member affected by a bleeding disorder, she was very committed and well respected within the community. She loved everyone she met despite their flops, failures, and fumbles. She had a strong work ethic and truly believed in doing “the right thing.” Star was a mentor to many. She would help out with anything one needed (including a shoulder to cry on). Star served on the Helping Hands Committee from April 2010 until her death on January 18, 2017. Having worked and volunteered within the hemophilia community, she was devoted and is sorely missed by all.
One committee member had this to say, “I met Star on my first adventure to a Bleeding Disorders program. It was way back when Centeon had the walk at Kankakee River in Illinois. She would give you the shirt off her back. I say that because that is exactly what she did on that trip. A lady’s luggage did not make it to the airport when she arrived for the walk that weekend. Being the good Samaritan Star was, she gave the lady something out of her own suitcase to sleep in and clean clothes to wear until her luggage arrived.”
Star lived up to her name. Now she is that shining star that everyone came to love.
