gained the admiration of his peers in the club for his dedication and commitment to serving his community. “Rotary’s motto is ‘service above self,’ “ a dentist and pres-ident of the Rotary Club of Ancaster Dr. Alan Zucker writes, in his submission nominating Morphet for the Inspire Award. “Gavin is an inspiration to others because he sets an example of service above self via his profession and through his involve-ment in our clubs.” As an evidence-based chiropractor, Morphet regularly re-views medical and health publications to keep himself updated on current news, research and resources that will enable him to provide optimal care for his patients, according to Zucker. In fact, it is not uncommon for Morphet to spend time outside of his clinic hours to research a patient’s specific concern, condition or question. Morphet considers the rotary slogan, service above self to be his guiding principle in his professional and personal life. “You won’t go wrong if you are exceeding the goals and expectations your patients have for their care. It is also very rewarding to work with people who have the shared desire to make their community a great place to live in,” he said. Through the rotary club, Morphet has been involved in major fundraising activities for various projects benefitting the Greater Hamilton Area community, including the development of the pediatric radiation suite and children’s waiting room at the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton, Ont. Just in the last five years, the Rotary Club of Ancaster has raised more than $500,000, which funded a number of local and international projects, according to Morphet. These in-cluded funding for a program that allows for disadvantaged kids to go to summer camp, a local meals-on-wheels program through the Ancaster Community Services, a toy donation drive during the Christmas season, a water sanitation project in Haiti and the provision of wheelchairs for people with disa-bilities in the Dominican Republic. “We are always looking at different projects, locally and in-ternationally, that we can get involved with,” he says. Morphet’s community involvement is not only limited to the rotary club, however. He also volunteers his time to offer education sessions for sports organizations in his community. He strives to con-sistently promote a healthy and active lifestyle among his pa-tients and the people he interacts with. He encourages his patients to get involved in the community as well. “Part of good health is getting involved in your community, being connected with your community, having a good social support network,” he says. His active community involvement helps Morphet provide better care for his patients. “I basically developed relationships with people within the rotary,” Morphet says, making it easy to connect patients with other professionals or health-care providers they may require, such as: dentists, personal trainers and nurses, among others. Zucker, who nominated Morphet for the award, affirms one of the chiropractor’s strengths is his personable and humble manner. “He understands that many patients already have positive and established relationships with other health-care practition-ers,” Zucker comments. “Therefore, he has built a solid net-work within the community to refer and receive referrals from those primary care givers as well, including doctors, dentists, orthodontists, chiropodists and medical specialists.” 26 Canadian Chiropractor February 2015 Passion and purpose When Dr. Dale Macdonald had the idea to establish the first and only private knee clinic in Calgary, one of his objectives was to help alleviate the huge backlog and expedite care for knee injury patients wanting to get timely treatment through the public health system. With his sports fellowship with the Royal College of www.canadianchiropractor.ca Info graph source: Volunteering in Canada, Mireille Vézina and Susan Crompton, Statistics Canada Morphet believes leading by example is the most powerful way to influence and inspire an individual. He practices this principle, personally and professionally. He encourages his patients to exercise regularly, eat healthy and maintain a re-warding social network. More importantly, he makes sure that he practises this lifestyle as well. “In my practice, seeing patients’ health and quality of life improve is very inspiring,” Morphet notes. “This motivates me to continue to improve my skills and knowledge base so that I can better serve my patients.” Morphet aspires to be a positive impact in his community, and be an important part of what makes his community a great place to live. He finds the work he does for his patients and his community very rewarding. “I am fortunate that my wife has similar interests, is very supportive and helps with the community work I do,” he says. Naturally, his three children also grew up in an environment of community service and have been part of the projects Mor-phet and his wife were involved with. “It has given our family many great memories,” he says.
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