Martha Mizuik
“When I don’t feel good, I always know that there’s somebody that I can give something to, that needs it worse than I do. So when I feel sorry for myself I always say: Martha, this isn’t going to do you any good to feel sorry for yourself. Get your shoes on, get your socks on, get your coat on, go for a walk, and when you come back, you’re going to feel better and you’re going to do whatever you have to do. Because there’s somebody that always needs something more than you do.”
Driven by her strong desire to help others, Martha Mizuik has played an integral role in bettering each community she has touched. From being a student in high school to working as a nurse and raising a family of three, Martha has always found time to devote herself to helping others through volunteering at hospitals, solving problems in the community, and many other activities.
Story Produced by: Kai Zabitsky and Cameron Wolfe
Kai Zabitsky is a 17 year old student at JPCI who is driven by her passions, having fun and making a positive impact on the people and environment around her. She hopes to study mechanical engineering at university. Kai enjoys playing sports, robotics, and listens to rock music in her spare time.
Cameron Wolfe is 18 years old and a student at John Polanyi CI in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He enjoys watching football and the UFC, playing rugby and learning about history.
Keepsake Memories
More about Martha
Martha Jane Mizuik was born April 1st, 1945 in Brockville, Ontario. She was raised in Cardinal, a small town in Ontario. Martha experienced a split education between Canada and the United States, spending the winter months in Florida. This was in part, due to her father’s health. She ended up graduating high school in Florida, where she was a tennis player, lifeguard, and majorette.
Martha always wanted to work with people, as she felt good helping others. Inspired by her grandmother’s work in nursing, Martha volunteered as a candy striper, performing non-medical nursing duties at a hospital in her free time. She enjoyed interacting with the patients, finding great pleasure in listening to their stories, and felt the great importance of them being told. Her positive experience working as a candy striper led her to pursue an education in nursing.
Martha then went to St. Petersburg College in St. Petersburg, Florida for two years, graduating with a Bachelor of Science Diploma. Martha then transferred to the Ottawa Civic Hospital and attended Nursing school there for a three-year in-house program. While attending nursing college, Martha met a patient who later became her husband. She graduated in 1968 and began her career as a Registered Nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. That year, Martha married her husband in Florida, moving to Ottawa to raise her three children. She decided to stay at home to take care of her children while they were still young.
Martha started volunteering in the community, teaching childbirth classes to new parents. Shortly after going back to work, she volunteered at the Salvation Army Hospital in Ottawa, working in a home for unwed mothers. Martha supported and cared for these young girls when their families did not. She would often go with the girls to their childbirth when there was no one else to go with them, usually receiving calls in the middle of the night that they needed her support.
In 1980, her family moved to Port Colbourne, Ontario. Two years later, Martha worked for the Canadian Red Cross Society in Community Health Care as the regional manager where she managed 200 people who would go into homes to aid people with activities of daily living. Through this job, Martha identified that in her community there were problems with food insecurity, homelessness, and general financial troubles. She worked together with other members of the community to meet all the needs of disadvantaged people in their town. Since its founding in the early 1980s, Port Cares has stood strong as an integral community support hub.
Even after her retirement, Martha continues to fight for the rights and well-being of others. She is part of the Ontario Coalition for Long-term Care, a non-profit group standing up for the treatment of individuals living in long-term care homes. For the past 20 years, Martha has been working to shift government funding to public care homes instead of private ones, all to provide better care for those who need it.
Martha is enjoying her retirement, and has six grandchildren. She spends her time doing yoga, self-improvement courses, bird watching, and playing with her cat Stella. She collects Ukrainian Eggs and French-Canadian Folk Art.