by
Loren Hamel, MD - President & CEO, Lakeland Health |
Apr 25, 2017
He wasn’t our typical volunteer. He was younger than average. In fact, he had not completed high school. But he was a volunteer in our emergency room in the Medical Center in St. Joseph.
When he was asked to sit with an elderly patient who had come to the emergency room without any family or friends, he was more than willing to help out.
As an emergency visit often goes, it can take time to get through all the checks done by nurses, residents, and attending physicians. It can take more time to have your blood drawn and your x-rays taken. It can take even more time waiting for all those test results.
And our young volunteer sat with this elderly patient through it all.
Now, I have often heard from grateful patients that it felt so good to have someone with them as they faced medical care alone.
I never heard from this particular patient. But we did hear from our young volunteer.
When asked about how things went with our elderly patient, the volunteer summarized the experience with a smile and said, “I had the best education ever on World War II.”
I imagine that our elderly veteran very much enjoyed the opportunity to share stories with a wide-eyed teen who sat with him so compassionately and respectfully over those hours in the emergency room.
April 23 through 29 is National Volunteer Week. Between our three hospitals, the Center for Outpatient Services, and Caring Circle, Lakeland has nearly 980 volunteers.
Those dear volunteers spend tens of thousands of hours helping to serve the needs of our patients and staff.
Some are with us for a short time. Others have faithfully served as Lakeland volunteers for more than four decades. Most have completed productive careers of their own before deciding to join the Lakeland family as a volunteer.
They’re unbelievably generous with their time. And they’re also unbelievably generous with their financial support.
Lakeland Auxiliaries, staffed by volunteers, has committed nearly $2.5 million to various Lakeland projects over the past decade including donating $5,000 to Hope Grows, which goes to support those diagnosed with cancer. Many of the volunteers also give generously to various capital campaigns. Others have set aside funds for scholarships. And, of course, none of that includes the value of the time they donate to serving others.
This year, our volunteers have already started helping in our obstetrics department caring for babies who were born with addictions. There are also volunteers who are starting to work alongside our Lakeland team members, providing help and support to victims of sexual abuse and assault.
But the most important and most memorable impact is the way they continually touch our hearts and the hearts of our patients and their families. We have been so very blessed. I can’t imagine doing the work we do every day without the help of our volunteers.
Please join me in expressing our thanks to each volunteer you pass this week. With a broad smile, and a handshake or a hug, please let them know how much we value them and their services to all of us.
