Adam Prudhomme
Editor
Many hands are involved in making the Lennox and Addington County General Hospital run smoothly.
The numerous stars who have worked behind the scenes for the last 60 years had their moment in the spotlight on Oct. 14, as LACGH held a celebration to recognize anyone who had served with Volunteer Services.
“Through COVID, a lot of us haven’t seen a lot of each other even though we volunteer on a regular basis,” said Marg Isbester, who joined the Volunteer Services board last year. “Lots of them are in different parts of the hospital. The room was full of red jackets which was exactly what the committee wanted to see. We had a lot of past presidents. A lot obviously weren’t there because of the time that has passed.”
Though their name hasn’t always been Volunteer Services to LACGH and their role has evolved over the years, at their core their mandate remains the same. That is, people from the community giving their time to help ensure an health care remains close to home.
“Supplying services. Things that are very small like at Emergency Care, if you were to go in there with the kids, the first thing that they’d come out with would be a colouring book and some crayons,” said Isbester of the many roles the volunteers fill today. “The next thing is helping people that maybe have mobility issues to get to the spots that they need to get to. Greeting them when they first come into the hospital at the courtesy desk is hugely important because even though we’re a small hospital the service that they provide as to this is where this is, this is where that is… a lot of people are nervous about coming to the hospital to begin with. Our volunteers help people go through all this.”
As COVID restrictions lift, the volunteers are expected to resume many of the tasks they held previously, such as assisting in clinics.
Their value can’t be overstated as hospital volunteers actually pre-date the hospital itself.
“We don’t have a full time person that we can turn to and say shoot this letter to this person or call this one,” said Isbester. “It’s all on the backs of volunteers. That’s why something like this to bring it to fruition, this program and this celebration was very cumbersome, but well worth it just to see how happy people were.”
To reflect on the previous 60 years the Westdale Complex room was decorated with photos and newspaper clippers of the many highlights dating back to 1963.
Along with celebrating their past, Volunteer Services also took the opportunity to announce they will be donating $60,000 (a fitting figure) to the hospital’s MRI fundraising campaign.
The LACGH Foundation will soon officially launched that campaign, with a goal of $3.5 million. Because of the need to house the equipment on a ground floor, the MRI machine will be installed next door to the hospital at the former LENADCO building.
The foundation is optimistic the machine will be delivered early next year and after rigorous testing, be fully operational by the end of February 2024.