Bhavna Parmar

Bhavna began volunteering at CONTACT in July 2005 when she was introduced to CONTACT through the Junior League of Dallas. “They were hosting a booth in North Park Mall that had information about CONTACT and I immediately became interested because I was looking for a way to give back to the community,” Bhavna said.

In February, Bhavna signed up for the training class to become a telephone volunteer and in May, before she was scheduled to begin the class, her sister-in-law committed suicide, drawing her even closer to CONTACT and its mission.

“It was a real eye-opener to have the suicide hit so close to home. It seemed that CONTACT came at just the right time for me. Not only was I going to be able to learn more about how to deal with my own grief, but I was now going to be able to be there for someone else that might be going through the same issues that my sister-in-law went through,” Bhavna said.

When asked about her most memorable call during her two years of being on the phone, Bhavna’s face lit up as she said, “My most memorable call was March 25, 2006 when Jay Leno called the call center during my shift! I didn’t believe it was him at first, but when I realized it was, he said, ‘This is Jay Leno and I wanted to call in to let you know you’re doing a great job, keep it up.’ I felt honored and excited at the same time.”