Leave the blues behind

Smart blue-coloured smocks, golf shirts and blazers make it easy to identify our volunteers at the Brant Community Healthcare System. They wear their ‘blues’ with pride as they go about enhancing the care patients and visitors receive. But tomorrow these volunteers will ‘leave the blues behind’ when they come out to the 34th annual Volunteer Recognition Dinner.

The Brant Community Healthcare System is not alone throughout North America as organizations are thanking millions of volunteers this week: National Volunteer Week. I can certainly say that at our hospitals the volunteers are part of our fabric- and that’s great. There are 573 volunteers at the Brant Community Healthcare System. Collectively, this group of amazing people contributed 62,286 hours this past year. 

“The face of our volunteers is changing,” Debbie Kew, manager- volunteer services for the Brant Community Healthcare System said. “People are retiring at a younger age so frequently we see folks in their mid- 50’s volunteering in our hospitals. Freedom 55 is taking on a new meaning. The number of males that volunteer continues to increase. We now have more than 100 men. This is really good.”

It is also interesting to look at who is volunteering. There are more professionals- retired bankers, teachers and managers. This interest in hospital volunteering keeps Debbie busy making sure there are appropriate volunteer assignments suitable to the skills of those who come forward. “We work very hard to match the interests of our volunteers to the hospital needs,” Debbie said.    

When patients and visitors come to our hospitals a volunteer likely will assist them. Volunteers are everywhere: the main entrance, the emergency department, urgent care centre, and the various clinics. Volunteers are always nearby. 

“We have volunteers in more than 80 areas,” Debbie said, “And more and more volunteer programs and services are being introduced. We now have volunteers on the surgical level assisting patients as they go into the OR. These volunteers help keep the lines of communication flowing between the OR and the nearby family waiting room where more volunteers are stationed. Two retired RN’s- Dayle Wiltsy and MaryAnne Conway- and newcomer Susan Rizzo are doing a great job. We are also in the process of training volunteers as greeters at the Willett to assist patients and of course we continue to have volunteers in the urgent care centre.”   

The volunteer association is also one of the large contributors to the hospital foundation. They operate the Gifts Plus shop inside the main lobby at the Brantford General and along with other fundraisers they have contributed almost $1.9- million including $85,000 last year. Tomorrow evening they will announce this year’s donation and word has it that the cheque will be for even more!

“The other day a gentleman came in to talk about joining our volunteers,” Debbie said. “He said to me that this is such a friendly place and noticed the camaraderie between the volunteers and the hospital staff and physicians. I told him the hospital loves to have us and the volunteers love to be here.” That’s the truth!  

Gary Chalk is senior executive director- public affairs & development for the Brant Community Healthcare System. Brantford General is a regional health centre providing primary, emergency and specialized services. The Willett, Paris, is a multi- service health centre providing urgent care, primary and community outreach programs.