Volunteering to make a difference

WORLAND – For 42 years, the Washakie Hospital Auxiliary, founded by Marty Delaney, Dolly Maxwell and June Osborne, has made the needs of patients at the Washakie Medical Center their top priority by making sure the patients and their families are as comfortable as possible.

According to the Washakie Hospital Auxiliary history written by June Osborne, "Throughout the years, the hospital auxiliary members have supported the hospital in numerous ways. We purchased the first television sets for the patient rooms. All funds raised were targeted for patient comfort items at the hospital including blanket warmers for several departments and recliner chairs for other areas. A number of the waiting rooms have been furnished with comfortable furniture as well."

The auxiliary, made up entirely of volunteers, does a variety of different activities for not only the hospital but the community as well. Some of the community activities include assisting with the bi-monthly blood drive at the Worland Senior Citizens Center, providing scholarships for high schoolers in Worland and Ten Sleep who are going into a medical-related field, providing in-house scholarships for Washakie Medical Center employees who are furthering their education and assisting with the tri-monthly diabetes clinic.

"The diabetic clinic is not just for the hospital, it's for the community. Anybody that's diabetic can go to it, it's free, they can get their hemoglobin A1Cs, and there are nurses and doctors there that they can ask questions of," said Washakie Hospital Auxiliary member Mary Minish.

For the hospital and its patients the auxiliary provides funds for aquarium supplies, supplies Dum-Dum suckers for all areas of the hospital, gives new mothers a free goodie package filled with a feeding spoon, bib, burp pad and a hand knitted cap, scales for all cardiac therapy patients, tummy and neck pillows and more.

They also provide comfort, directions and run the gift shop, which helps pay for the things they provide. "It's giving back and helping people be more comfortable because walking into the hospital does not give you a warm and fuzzy feeling," Washakie Hospital Auxiliary member Meg Stark said. The gift shop has items that cannot be obtained anywhere else in town and the items are really reasonably priced, she added.

Washakie Hospital Auxiliary member Mary Jo Hake added, "I think coming into a hospital is a frightening situation no matter what, even if your doctor tells you to go over and get your blood drawn. People walk in the front door and you can just see the look of where do I go, what do I do now? I think helping people navigate through the facility and get connected with who they need to be connected with, just comfort, being greeted by a friendly face makes it feel like it's not a sterile clinical environment and that we care about them, which we do."

Currently the auxiliary is working on putting shades in the day room and the chapel. "We are putting in shades in the day room and in the chapel, so that they can have privacy in there if they are having a family crisis. We've noticed families go in there if they have someone that is dying or they are having surgery. The family likes to get together and you don't want someone walking down the hall watching them all sit there crying or whatever. The same thing with the chapel. I don't know if anyone even knows it's there, but it's got a full wall of windows to the outside," Stark said.

Members also crochet and knit blankets, baby hats, neck pillows and tummy pillows for the patients. Hake explained about a time when she was concerned because they were running out of tummy pillows and Minish whipping some up for the patients in a few short hours. "The tummy pillow, if they have had surgery and have to cough, that tummy pillow is really important. Those are things that the hospital doesn't supply because it's really expensive if they buy them from a hospital supply place. We can make them and it doesn't cost the hospital anything and the patients get to take them home," Minish said.

At one time the auxiliary used a cart to bring items to patients. "We used to, a long time ago, have a little cart that went around to the patients in the afternoon that had, books, refreshments, games and stuff that the patients can use. We haven't done that in a long time because we haven't had enough volunteers to do it. They would love to have people just sit and maybe read to the patients. If you are in here for a week, it's nice to see a shining face and some of the older people don't have any family, so it's nice to see a friendly face. The cart was a good thing, not only for the patients but for the staff as well. It's a really nice wooden cart, the boys at the school made it for us," Minish said.

According to the Washakie Hospital Auxiliary history written by June Osborne, " In the beginning, we pushed our refreshment cart through the halls of the hospital after receiving a patient list from the nurses as to diet restrictions for each patient. Members donated their magazines from home for the patients' entertainment, as well. We visited with the patients and their family members and provided good will for our local hospital. We provided a telephone which we kept on the cart, as in those days, patient rooms were not equipped with a telephone. We also purchased a television which was mounted on a wheeled cart, to allow long-term patients to view TV from their bed."

Being able to do all the things that they do for the hospital, the patients and the community requires a lot of volunteers, which the auxiliary is in need of. And while volunteers are asked to make three cakes for the ice cream social and spend six hours a month helping at the hospital, they don't have to as some members only assist with the ice cream social and others assist by making items. Minish stated that whatever help people can offer is fine and that the auxiliary isn't just for women, men can help out as well.

"But we do need some volunteers because we are all getting elderly. It's getting harder because a lot of our membership is getting older and we can't do as much as we used to."

Minish also stated that volunteers don't have to have contact with patients if they are not comfortable doing that because they can always find something for the volunteers to do.

The auxiliary also puts on the annual ice cream social, which helps raise money for their different activities. Auxiliary members were happy to state that this year the ice cream social and carnival will once again be held at the hospital.

Besides the gift shop, the ice cream social is the auxiliary's main fundraising event. Although according to Osborne in her history of the auxiliary, the very first fundraiser the auxiliary had was wild west themed. "The fund-raising was the fun part. I was a member of Beta Sigma Phi Sorority, Tau Chapter, and invited, 'roped,' my sorority sisters into helping us kick off this crazy idea. Since we lived in the 'wild west,' we came up with the idea of holding up community members to donate money for the new Washakie Hospital Auxiliary. We informed the police department and Northern Wyoming Daily News of the event we were planning, and had free radio spots on KWOR.

"Many of my sorority sisters and friends dressed up as cowboys, with our guns drawn, wandered in front of Stockgrower's State Bank, holding up community members for donations to this new organization. We had signs protruding from our 'guns' stating stick 'em up for the Washakie Hospital Auxiliary. We had good support from our victims and made a grand total of about $56 to purchase pop and goodies for our gift cart ..."

The Washakie Hospital Auxiliary meets on the last Tuesday of every month at 10:30 a.m. at the hospital and anyone interested in volunteering can attend a meeting or call the hospital gift shop.