by Scott McIntyre on Friday, June 18, 2010
5It was great to see both good people and good things in Iowa celebrated as front-page news this week.
The subject was volunteerism in America and the big news was Iowa ranking second in the nation, with almost 40 percent of Iowans providing volunteer time. Only Utah, at 44 percent, ranked higher. The source of all this is the Corporation for National and Community Service, a program of the federal government that promotes and provides information about volunteering, and the results of its Volunteering in America survey and report.
Individual Iowa communities were also leaders, with Iowa City (second), Des Moines (sixth) and Cedar Rapids (15th) among the top mid-sized cities. This is significant, because one of the more interesting facts from the data is that the smaller the community, the more people tend to volunteer. So the competition among the mid-sized cities was particularly strong.
Regional Health Services of Howard County volunteers put in hundreds of hours creating quilts that are then auctioned to raise money for the hospital.
Hospitals, of course, provide a huge opportunity for anyone who wants to serve their community. Keeping in mind that the vast majority of Iowa hospitals are small (fewer than 25 beds), Regional Health Services of Howard County in Cresco is a typical example, with a corps of 85 active volunteers. That main group is supplemented by many others who contribute time, particularly to the hospitals hugely successful quilt auction. All told, the hospital benefits from more than 27,600 hours of volunteer service. Similarly, a group of about 70 volunteers at Wright Medical Center in Clarion donated more than 6,700 hours to the hospital.
Iowa City’s high ranking certainly has something to do with the two hospitals there. University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics has about 1,200 volunteers, many of them full-time college students, who put in 98,000 hours of service. At Mercy Iowa City, 440 volunteers contribute about 26,000 hours a year.
Hospital volunteers are also energetic fundraisers who often run the hospital gift shops. That revenue, along with separate fundraising efforts by the volunteers, provides money to buy new equipment and make other improvements. For example, at Mary Greeley Medical Center (MGMC) in Ames, one of the auxiliary’s special projects is to update the hospital guest house, which provides nearby lodging for families of MGMC patients. Volunteers also help fund hundreds of scholarships given by their hospitals (and IHA) each year.
And though it is difficult to quantify because, like most businesses, Iowa hospitals don’t formally track employee volunteer time, IHA firmly believes Iowa hospitals give as good as they get when it comes to volunteering. This anecdotal example is likely very typical:
Last summer, employees at St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids committed to fill every slot for one week of work on the local Habitat for Humanity project, and they did it – 30 slots, eight hours a day for five straight days. The response was so great and the Habitat people were so pleased that the St. Luke’s employees have pledged to do it again this year.
Volunteers at Montgomery County Memorial Hospital in Red Oak this year logged in over 12,000 hours of service. A $40,000 pledge was made to install a new serenity garden that will be located outisde the new Oncology suite and will wrap around the front of the hospital and physicians center.
Quite a project. A check for $30,000 was presented to MCMH toward that pledge at the annual Auxiliary meeting in May.
This year St. Anthony auxiliary volunteers contributed over 29,000 hours for hospital services and projects. The hospital auxiliary is just completing a $100,000 pledge to the St. Anthony Education Center, which brings professional education to the region’s healthcare workers. The auxiliary also provides six scholarships annually for students entering or continuing in a healthcare profession.
In addition to the hospital auxiliary, Hospice volunteers and our No One Dies Alone ministry serve the needs of terminally ill patients.
We are very proud of our volunteers and as our mission says, “count them as a valuable resource” for our organization.
Great River Friends President Jackie Marion was one of six people who received medals for their volunteer efforts in the community. The Burlington/West Burlington Mayors’ Volunteer Awards were presented in May. She was recognized in the Health category for giving 3,540 hours of volunteer time since she began volunteering at Great River Medical Center in 2005.
Jackie has volunteered in the Gift Shop, Great River Hospice, lobby escort. She became president of the Great River Friends Board of Directors in 2006 and averages about 100 volunteer hours a month.
As president, Jackie has shown tremendous leadership through her progressive style. She always looks for ways to increase profitability and efficiencies. In this role, she wears many hats, from fundraiser to teacher to administrator. She does it all with a wonderful sense of fun.
Mercy Medical Center has a large and extremely committed volunteer corps. We currently have 829 volunteers who logged 110,131 hours last year.
Two of our volunteers received special recognition outside the hospital:
Jeanette Ernst received KCRG-TV’s “9 Who Care” Award and went to Washington D.C.
Jan Kazimour was recognized as a Volunteer Hero by the Corridor Business Journal.
Our small but mighty youth and adult volunteer force donated nearly 6,300 hours last year in various volunteer “stations” around our small county and at Lucas County Health Center. We love our volunteers!