By Winnie Bolton
Twenty-two years ago when Tom and I moved to Mount Angel from Paradise Valley, Ariz., I joined the Silverton Hospital Auxiliary.
Every state into which we moved, I found time to volunteer.
It was one way to become informed about our new environment but also a way toward meeting new friends.
When Tom retired, he and I made a choice to move “this” time (instead of it being a company move) and we selected Oregon.
It was a new state, not one we had known before. What peeked our decision for choosing Mount Angel was the Mount Angel Abbey.
We had gone to a retreat weekend and met Father Bernard O.S.B. who asked us to consider moving here and seriously consider volunteering for the Abbey.
It didn’t take long for us, after his kind invitation, to decide to move to Mount Angel as we had immediately fallen in love with the area and what it had to offer.
Personally, we both concluded that it was divine intervention.
Within months of selling our home and purchasing a home in Mount Angel, I also found myself volunteering at the hospital.
When we lived in Arizona, I was heavily involved in the Service League at St. Luke’s 300 bed hospital. I performed a poison prevention puppet show which I wrote for the hospital’s poison control center.
Silverton Hospital embraced this puppet show, adding a school children’s tour to the hospital’s area that would enlighten and interest first and second graders.
In the past 20 years it has expanded to include preschoolers and kindergarteners with the addition of the Silverton fire chief offering tips on fire safety behavior and how to call 911 in the case of an emergency.
I also have enjoyed working in the Espresso Bar, the gift shop, the information desks, on blood drives, book fair sales, the scholarship committee. The auxiliary offers numerous areas in which to volunteer.
Currently there is an ongoing membership drive for the Silverton Auxiliary so if you are interested in the good stuff life offers and want to lend a hand, visit www.silvertonhealth.org or call 503-873-1789 or 503-873-1786.
As a volunteer, I get to experience in numerous ways all the loving care Silverton Hospital offers to everyone coming through its doors, from the kitchen staff, the maintenance crew, emergency personnel to the office workers, therapists, nurses and doctors.
The gift of sharing oneself with others is its own reward. Come join us.
