Remembering Sandy Logue

Last week, HEI/SBH lost Sandy Logue, a great friend, volunteer and family member of the organization.

Sandy first started with SBH decades ago after hearing about the organization through St. Bernadette’s Parish in Randolph and befriending Nannette Canniff, President Emeritus. Sandy went on one of SBH’s early trips, and after that, Nannette said, she never turned back.

Sandy later moved to Jacksonville, Fla. and spread the word about our work in Haiti. An operating room nurse, she was instrumental in bringing surgery to rural Haiti, and became the coordinator for surgical trips: organizing teams of volunteers; ensuring supplies were procured and sent; setting up operating rooms, and more.

“Sandy was the first person to start in the operating room and the last person to leave after cleaning up at the end of the day,” said Conor Shapiro, President and CEO of HEI/SBH. “She was a force of nature and clearly one of the best examples we have of someone who dedicated her life to the poor and the underserved. Haiti was a better place due to Sandy’s presence and St. Boniface has lost a true friend and leader.”

Sandy is known to the people of Fond Des Blancs as “Mom Sandy,” because of her love, her indefatigable spirit and her dedication to the people of the region. But not only was Sandy gracious to the people of Haiti, said Nannette, but to everyone.

“St. Boniface has lost a person of great strength, courage and compassion,” Nannette said. “Someone who would go to any length to help a person at any personal discomfort or cost to herself. Strangers in Haiti, people in Jacksonville. Myself.”

Nannette estimates that Sandy opened the door to her home and took in some 100 people over the course of her life: people who needed a hand, or who had nowhere else to go at the time. She adopted five children, and was full of life, laughter and fun, Nannette said.

In 2010 the Board of HEI/SBH, with the enthusiastic support of the Haitian staff at the hospital, renamed the surgical suite at the hospital in Fond des Blancs the “Mom” Sandy Logue Centre de Chirurgie. Additionally, in November 2012, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Health Care Heroes Dinner in Jacksonville.

Dr. Ronald Carzoli, close friend of Sandy’s, spoke in her honor at the event, calling her “the closest thing to a saint that any of us will ever meet.”

“You could meet few people more selfless and dedicated to a cause than her,” he said.

She will be greatly missed.