Emma Claessens, a Certified Nursing Assistant with Home Care Personal Services, Inc., yesterday received the Mary I. Hill Homecare Assistant of the Year award from the Illinois Association of Community Care Program Homecare Providers (IACCPHP). According to the IACCPHP, this award was created to recognize the important role homecare assistants hold in the success of the Community Care Program–a state program designed to provide assistance to the elderly, allowing them to live independently at home.

Bestowing the award on Ms. Claessens, R.W. Thieman, executive director of the association says, “…it was Emma’s service and professional practices that made her stand out above the others.”

Ms. Claessens was among the first employees hired when Home Care Personal Services was founded in July 1979, and is one of the longest-serving employees at the home care agency.

She was recently honored for her 30 years of service by the agency with President Henrietta Hughes saying, ”Emma is one of those employees you wish you could clone. She is dependable, honest, trustworthy, compassionate, and joyfully endears herself to every one of her clients and to us. We don’t know what we would do without Emma; she is still working tirelessly when most at her age (73) would be retired.”

Home Care Personal Services, Inc., (Naperville, Ill.) provides in-home assistance to nearly 800 clients in Illinois. The agency offers a variety of services for those needing short-term or long-term care at home in Naperville, Crystal Lake, Bourbonnais, Peoria, and surrounding areas. More information can be found on the agency’s website www.illinoiscaregivers.com.