Volunteer, massage therapist works to help people

After 30 years as a computer consultant, Downers Grove resident John Jardon decided it was time for a change.

With the encouragement of his wife, who had volunteered at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital for 30 years, Jardon began volunteering there himself. He started working in the emergency room once a week where he would run errands, guide patients to their rooms or X-ray and get requested medication. Eventually, he settled down working in the gift shop.

The work sparked a new interest in healthcare. Jardon decided to take classes in anatomy and looking at different options he could pursue. He wound up settling on massage therapy and now works for the Advocate Good Samaritan Health and Wellness Center in Downers Grove, the Downers Grove Park District and Eaglewood Resort in Itasca.

“I like helping people attain their health goals with stress relief and relieving their muscle problems, muscle aches and things,” he said.

He finds his new work much more rewarding than his previous career and has continued working at Hinsdale Hospital for more than seven years, recently earning him recognition as volunteer of the month.

Jardon has lived in Downers Grove for 33 years but said his devotion to community service began while growing up in Iowa. His parents were very involved in the community and instilled those same values in him. He now is passing those values on to his children and grandchildren.

Jardon was able to combine his enjoyment of massage with volunteering shortly after Hurricane Katrina when he spent a week in Biloxi and Gulfport, Miss., working with Emergency Response Massage International.

“I was doing massage therapy, stress relief chair massage for first responders to the disaster,” he said. “They were very receptive to what we were doing. They considered us part of their team as well.”