Basic HTML Version
Mildred Hill smiled while
remembering the year 1990. At the
time, TVs in Tri-City Medical Center’s
patient rooms did not have cable
hookups—hard to fathom in today’s
linked-in, technology-is-king world.
“We only had six local stations,”
recalled Hill. “Not very interesting.”
Hill, then a new volunteer for
Tri-City’s Auxiliary, had her first
assignment: Help launch a program
that let patients choose a movie from
a list, then have the movie and a video
player delivered to their room.
“People loved it,” Hill said. “It
was a short escape for patients and
their visitors.”
Today, 22 years later, Hill is still
a volunteer. She’s put in more than
12,000 hours since those days,
learning a host of volunteer positions
around the medical center.
No mission has been too humble:
She once hunted high and low,
successfully, for Fixodent to secure a
patient’s dentures and dignity.
“Being in the hospital can be
frightening,” Hill said. “The smallest
act of kindness can be huge.”
A Corps of Caring
Hill is one of about 450 active
volunteers at Tri-City’s Auxiliary,
which has been an essential part of
the hospital since it opened in 1961.
These dedicated, compassionate
men, women and junior volunteers
give about 73,000 service hours—
valued at $1.6 million—to the
Auxiliary each year.
“The people I work with take this
very, very seriously,” said longtime
volunteer Dick Robertson, who
helps in Emergency Services. His
assignment includes sterilizing
cabinets and rooms, putting fresh
linens on gurneys, hunting down
wayward wheelchairs and anything
else that needs to be done.
Distracting babies with his
rendition of his alma mater’s
“Michigan State University Fight
Song” is a special talent.
Robertson is also vice president of
student services at MiraCosta College.
His stint as an Auxiliary volunteer
began when he was lobbying for
more nursing scholarships for
students at the college. Lois Milam,
then-president of the Auxiliary, made
him an offer he couldn’t refuse: She’d
raise more scholarship money if he’d
become a volunteer.
Pictured from left are Connie Jones, Toni D’Alessandro, Margy Reynolds and Paul Martini. All are Auxilians.
Volunteers
TRI-CITY MEDICAL CENTER AUXILIARY
HUNDREDS OF HELPING HANDS
10
Healthy You
|
Fall 2012