By Jeanne Sager
HARRIS — July 4, 2003 – It seems Catskill Regional Medical Center has a treasure trove hidden away.
Don’t go looking under the hospital beds just yet – the secrets to the facility’s success lie not in hidden funds but in the hundreds of people who filled the cafeteria last Thursday evening.
The 361 men and women make up the hospital’s volunteer corps. And according to Jodi Goodman, head of volunteer services, those who keep it going include everyone from Evelyn Haas – who submitted to a day’s worth of poking and prodding to help get the Seelig Division’s mammography equipment accredited – to Mary Cade – a spry lady who keeps at the administration to make sure the Grover Hermann Division in Callicoon gets a crack at the best of everything.
“You provide a little heart and soul,” hospital CEO Art Brien told the volunteers. “You provide a touch of home.
“And without you, we wouldn’t be the same.”
Last year, the volunteers worked in 48 different hospital departments at both campuses. They logged 41,191.75 hours, and the list of those donating their time rose from 317 to 361.
Awards went out last week not only to the top workers, but volunteers who put their talents to the test in the most creative ways.
“This is the most creative year we’ve had yet,” Goodman noted. “We’ve changed in the different ways we volunteer.
“When I started off, we were 80 percent clerical and 20 percent other,” she continued. “Now we’re 50/50 – what’s really changed our package is we’ve really gotten more creative.”
And to illustrate that, she honored a number of folks for everything from “most dynamic leader” to “24/7 couple.”
Haas got a special thank you and a round of applause for “lending her breasts” to the hospital’s mammography unit, and another diehard volunteer earned her own stethoscope for assisting a doctor in a gynecological exam (much to her chagrin).
Top volunteer hour awards for the Seelig Division went to:
1. Rose Garfinkel – 2,514
2. Ernestine McElhone – 1,895
3. Murray Cash – 1,263
4. Donna Maiorano – 1,015
5. Evelyn Haas – 960
6. Gerard Sharpe – 710.
Top hour awards for the Grover Hermann Division were handed to:
1. Mary Cade – 419
2. Marie Zalesky – 182
3. Eleanor Glassel – 149
4. Ann Theadore – 110
5. Olga Kulick – 104
6. Noreen Mudge – 56.
Also given out this year was a scholarship award to a stellar volunteer who will be heading to college in the fall.
Matt Manzi of Liberty High School received a check from Lorraine Cohen in memory of her mother, Eva Topal, who was a CRMC volunteer and member of the auxiliary.
“My mother felt volunteering was the greatest joy for her,” Cohen recalled. “This was started because she also had an unshakable belief in education.
“Think of this award as a key – it opens the door to the rest of your life,” she told Manzi.
The 18-year-old is heading to Ithaca College in September to start studies in the physical therapy department.