Pomerene Auxiliary celebrates 40 years of service
“We couldn’t do what we do without the help of these wonderful people,” Miller said. “They are irreplaceable.”
Miller spoke to a gathered group of hospital auxiliary volunteers, including 10 charter members. The auxiliary began with 18 members in 1972.
From their beginning to the present, the Pomerene Auxiliary has been faithful and focused on its dedicated task of fundraising and serving the hospital staff, patients and visitors. The auxiliary has provided the volunteers and enthusiasm, and the hospital has the equipment to prove it.
Miriam Powell, the wife of Dr. William Powell, was the first president of the auxiliary. That year the group raised enough funding to purchase televisions for each patient room.
“The TVs were mounted on the wall,” past president Ann Stotler said. “We would collect rent money from the patients so they could watch the TVs.” Stotler said the money was used to purchase other items for Pomerene.
Georgiana Oswald, a charter member of the auxiliary who also served as its president for three years, fondly remembered her favorite fundraiser.
“We used to do a quilt raffle,” she said. “We did a different pattern every year and a different group of ladies would make the quilt.”
Each one of the charter members seemed to remember something different as they paged through detailed records of the auxiliary that Mildred Patterson compiled. She was the wife of Dr. Owen Patterson.
“We didn’t realize the amount of information she compiled,” Stotler said. “We had so many projects over the years.”
Stotler recalled the year the group had a booth at the Peddler in the Woods at Memory Park near Mt. Hope.
“We sold lots of ice slush,” she said. “We made $1,500 selling it, and the recipe is in all of the old auxiliary cookbooks.”
The group actually celebrated its 40th year by holding a picnic at Memory Park in September. Stotler said it was a well-attended event.
Stotler said she especially enjoyed working in the auxiliary’s gift shop, located in the lobby of the main entrance of the hospital.
“We loved to decorate the lobby for the holidays,” she said. “I don’t regret any of the time I spent here.” The first gift shop was merely a glass showcase, according to Stotler.
Another charter member, Blanche Schmucker, said she did the scheduling. She said she did much of the work from home.
“I scheduled everybody, including the subs,” she said. “We had two shifts with two on the floor.”
Stotler said the auxiliary really began to grow when the Amish and Mennonite ladies began to help several years ago. Today the group has 85 active members who run the gift shop, do clerical and dietary functions, and transport patients inside the hospital. Nancy Stackhouse and Miriam Miller serve as co-presidents of the auxiliary.
“These ladies are really sharp,” she said. “They do more than just wheel people around.”
She cited the recent actions of an attentive volunteer. Verna Burkholder noticed a woman in the lobby having difficulty breathing, notified the front desk to call a nurse, and got a wheelchair. Burkholder helped transport the woman to the emergency room where she was treated.
“We never know what we are going to get into,” Burkholder said. She said she helps twice a month.
In 1983 the auxiliary introduced another novel fundraiser. They rented car seats to the parents of newborns as they left the hospital.
“People would take their baby home in the car seat,” Oswald said, “and return the seat when the child had outgrown it.”
Over the years, the auxiliary has purchased thousands of dollars worth of equipment, from a 16-millimeter projector in 1976 to four surgical beds in 1995.
For a small group that started from an organizational tea, the Pomerene Auxiliary has increased significantly both in numbers and scope, according to Oswald.
“The size and services have both grown with the staff and the hospital,” Oswald said.