By Buckley Smith [1] & Tyler Penney [2]
BELLEVILLE – Belleville General Hospital’s Auxiliary volunteer program held its first-ever open house Wednesday morning, as part of the city’s Auxiliary Volunteer Week which is honouring more than 250 local volunteers.
And due to the low turnout, BGH Auxiliary is still in need of a lot of volunteers.
The BGH Auxiliary [3] was established in 1938, and since then it has been supporting the hospital in a number of ways. The auxiliary runs about 20 different volunteer programs throughout the facility by helping out with various patient activities.
In 2015, BGH Auxiliary contributed more than 33,000 hours between their many programs.
Each volunteer QNet News spoke with called it a “very rewarding” experience.
“You’ll find it very rewarding,” said Leah Johnson, president of the BGH Auxiliary. “We are a friendly group, and our slogan is ‘Time well spent’ and ‘Help us help others’.”
Johnson, who started volunteering at the hospital just days after she retired 12 years ago, said that the interactions with patients and their families is what makes it all worth it.
“I see people sitting in The Aroma Cafe [4] (a volunteer-run cafe in the hospital) and I say ‘would you like a free coffee?’ and they just want to sit down and talk with you. Sometimes they just like to tell you their problems because they just need someone to talk to.”
For some volunteers, like Hilda Dean, the reasons for volunteering are a bit more personal. Dean, who lost her mother and partner to cancer, started out by volunteering for the cancer society before moving on to volunteer in the oncology department with BGH Auxiliary.
For Dean, her time as a volunteer is all about making the patients and their families comfortable during a difficult situation.
“We visit with clients who are doing chemotherapy or just waiting for an appointment. We offer coffee and tea and snacks and just be a support for them,” said Dean.
A furry friend is what some patients need.
Leona Dawson, who works in the therapy dogs program [5], said that she has seen many patients who normally won’t respond to anything respond instantly to the dogs.
“The patients just love to see the dogs. They brighten up as soon as they see the dogs, and they smile, and they really enjoy the company, because some of them have dogs back home that they had to leave,” said Dawson.
Dean, who worked more than 30 years as a nurse, said that the help the volunteers provide all across the hospital does not go unnoticed by the staff.
“Volunteers have always been a big part of nursing here in Belleville,” she said, “I’ve worked in long-term care and we had a lot of volunteers there who were an amazing help to us as nurses.”
Catherine Walker, the manager of community relations for Quinte Health Care [6], said that the services go beyond what the hospital’s staff can provide and said she believes the hospital could not run properly without them.
http://www.qnetnews.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/BGH-Audio-2.mp3 [7]“It is a remarkable organization,” said Walker, “They’re a big organization, extremely active, and we simply couldn’t do it without them.”
For more information on how to sign up, visit the BGH Auxiliary information page. [3]