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VETERANS IN SERVICE ONCE AGAIN, THIS TIME AS VA
VOLUNTEERS -- "I came home without a scratch.
I feel I owe it to these guys."
For more information on volunteering at your
local VA hospital, click the logo above.
Story here...
http://www.gazetteextra.
com/cooties060207.asp
Story below:
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Veterans in service once again
By Shelly Birkelo
Gazette staff
MIDDLETON-"Are you Mr. Francis Burns?" asked Harvey Jordan in a soft
voice as he approached the man lying on the hospital stretcher.
When he got a yes, Jordan identified himself as a hospital volunteer
then told the patient he would be pushing him back to his room at
Veterans Hospital.
Burns was appreciative.
"It's very comforting having them around," Burns said of the volunteers.
"They keep the hospital running, are efficient and a big help to the
nurses, doctors and hospital in general."
Jordan and three other Rock County residents travel together every other
Thursday to the hospital, where they each volunteer 16 hours a month.
They have a combined total of 42 years of volunteer experience at the
VA.
Their service is critical to the hospital, said Mary J. Merlin,
voluntary service specialist.
"If an employee had to stop and do what the volunteers do, it takes away
from patient care. They're a great asset,'' Merlin said.
During fiscal year 2006, 400 people volunteered 72,000 hours to 15
departments at the hospital, Merlin said.
"We push patients around to different rooms, take charts to the file
room and do whatever we're called for," Jordan said.
After checking in at the voluntary services office, volunteers work from
a small, first-floor room where chairs line two walls and a small TV
hangs in the corner above the sole desk and phone.
By 10:30 a.m. on a recent Thursday, 35 calls came in to the office.
One was from the front desk requesting more wheelchairs for arriving
patients.
John Thompson of Edgerton responded to the call.
"I like to help the vets and see the patients smile. It's very
rewarding," Thompson said.
He's a naval aviation Korean War vet.
Another call asked a volunteer to deliver a food tray from the kitchen
to a patient in the emergency room.
Beulah Rudolph, 76, of Edgerton responded.
When Robert Updike, a 78-year-old World War II and Korean veteran from
Edgerton, returned to the volunteer room, he explained his willingness
to help others.
"I came home without a scratch. I feel I owe it to these guys,'' he
said.
Jordan, Updike and Thompson are members of the Military Order of Cooties
Pup Tent 33, Edgerton. Rudolph is a member of Cooties Pup Tent 9
Auxiliary, Janesville.
Volunteering is what they're all about.
Rudolph has been secretary for the Edgerton VFW Post Auxiliary for 25
years and writes a column about the auxiliary for the Edgerton Reporter.
Jordan, Thompson and Updike volunteer for the Edgerton Memorial Squad at
military funerals. Thompson and Jordan are members of the rifle squad
while Updike is the flag folder. The men also are members of the
Edgerton VFW.
They log about 9 miles each shift in their tennis shoes.
Between calls to pick up X-rays and shuttle charts and patients, they
discuss family and fishing and chat with other volunteers.
Updike said the work is rewarding.
"They can be so sick, but they always can say thank you."
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Larry Scott --
