Banner Boswell honors milestone contributions of volunteers
SUN CITY, Ariz. (March 24, 2011) – In 2010, volunteers at Banner Boswell Medical Center in Sun City gave over 253,000 hours of their time – the equivalent of more than 28 years. The non-profit hospital recognized some of these volunteers Wednesday at a service awards presentation honoring 161 of the 1,601 active volunteers.
Sun City resident Eleanor Strasser was honored as the hospital’s longest-time volunteer. Strasser, who joined the volunteer program in 1980, has given 28,000 hours to Banner Boswell. She volunteers 20 to 30 hours per week in several roles, including as chairperson of the hospital’s volunteer coffee cart service.
Each weekday, Strasser arrives at Banner Boswell around 5 a.m. to ready the supplies for the daily service. Twenty-two volunteers offer free coffee, tea, orange juice and light snacks to patients and their family members on every nursing unit. Because breakfast isn’t served to patients until after 8 a.m., the coffee cart service helps to tide over patients who are awake and are able to eat. Even more important for patients is the need for human interaction that is filled by the friendly volunteers who are sometimes the only visitors to patients who don’t have friends or family in the area.
Other top donors of time include Sun City residents Mary Jane Gibson, Wilma Grimstad and Helen Scarriot with 16,000 hours each; Sun City resident Beatrice Hodson with 15,000 hours; Sun City West resident Jean Derr, Peoria residents Betty Jamieson and Justine McCormick, and Sun City resident Robert Walters with 13,000 hours each; and Sun City residents Connie Carson and Lena Germain with 11,000 hour each.
“We are indebted to the contributions our volunteers make each and every day,” said Julianne Mudric, director of Volunteer Services. “From escorting lost visitors to providing comfort to families while their loved ones are in surgery, we couldn’t do it without the smiles and helping hands of our volunteers.”
For more information on becoming a volunteer at Banner Boswell, please call (623) 876-5387 or visit www.BannerHealth.com/Boswell.
Banner Boswell Medical Center, located at 10401 W. Thunderbird Blvd. in Sun City, is a 501-bed campus specializing in heart care, cancer care, stroke care, orthopedics, acute rehabilitation, skilled nursing and emergency care. Supporting Banner Boswell’s mission of excellent patient care is the Sun Health Foundation, which encourages charitable giving to support the hospital. Banner Boswell is part of nonprofit Banner Health. For more information about Banner Boswell, visit www.BannerHealth.com/Boswell.
