St. Mary Medical Center honored the service of its auxiliary volunteers Monday, April 17, at the annual Volunteer Awards Luncheon. Held at Avalon Manor, the event brought together healthcare administrators and staff with auxiliary and board members to acknowledge service milestones for 64 volunteers whose combined number of hours totaled approximately 150,000.
Volunteer Carol Piscione led all honorees in serving a total of 16,000 hours. Donna Lajic has been recognized for serving 12,000 hours. Kay W. Roos and John R. Webdell have been honored for reaching the 10,000-hour milestone.
Six more volunteers were recognized for service between 5,000 and 8,000 hours. Twenty-five volunteers were honored for serving between 1,000 and 5,000 hours at the hospital.
“For more than four decades, our Auxiliary has been a blessing to St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart, and to our patients and visitors,” CEO Janice Ryba said. “Your spirit of service helps to make the patient experience truly exceptional. I see this every day at the entrances to the hospital, as well as in all of the other areas that our Auxilians support.”
Auxiliary volunteers manage the gift shop and the information desk at St. Mary Medical Center, and they assist with patient transport, courier services, waiting-area attendance and other important activities. They also host many fundraisers such as bake sales throughout the year, with proceeds going to support St. Mary Medical Center.
At the luncheon, auxiliary officers presented a check for $30,000 in support of the St. Mary Medical Center Auxiliary Scholarship Fund. The scholarship fund supports students studying in healthcare-related fields.
The auxiliary also made another donation in the amount of $98,500, to help support the hospital’s acquisitions of additional advanced technologies. These items include a navigational bronchoscopy system that will help expedite procedure times for pulmonary diagnostic tests, and new interventional radiology equipment used for biopsies.
“As CEO of St. Mary, on behalf of our Board of Directors, our medical staff, our employees and our parent company Community Foundation of Northwest Indiana, I sincerely thank you for your generous donations and for your longstanding commitment to the advancement of patient care at our hospital,” Ryba said.
Technology, such as the navigational bronchoscopy system and the new interventional radiology equipment is vital to maintaining our outstanding level of care, Ryba went on to explain. Combined with the comfort and support offered by our volunteers, patients know they are receiving some of the best healthcare available in Northwest Indiana, she said.
To learn more about the hospitals of Community Healthcare System: St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart, St. Catherine Hospital in East Chicago, Community Hospital in Munster, and our physicians and services, visit comhs.org.
