Let’s face it. You don’t visit a hospital for pleasure. It’s usually to visit a sick friend or relative.
If not, it’s often for lab tests, doctors visits or a medical procedure requested by your physician. It’s somewhere you go not because you want to, but because you have to. If you don’t know where to go or who to talk to, you can be a little intimidated by the surroundings.
The Española Hospital Auxiliary provides an oasis of friendly smiles and helpful advice to those who walk into Presbyterian Española Hospital. Since its founding in 1955, the Auxiliary volunteers have made the hospital a happier and friendlier place.
“We’re very proud of them,” hospital Administrator Brenda Romero said. “Maybe we could get along without them, but we prefer not to. They provide a lot of comfort to the community by just being there.”
The Auxiliary consists of 58 active members who pay dues of $8 per year and volunteer 50 hours a year. There are no payroll expenses because there are no paid employees, all the work by the members is voluntary. They are at the hospital because they want to be there.
“Being able to put a smile on their faces is very important,” Auxiliary gift shop manager and former treasurer Elizabeth Romero said. “Even if it’s just for a minute or two can make all the difference.”
The Auxiliary staffs an information/surgery desk in the hallway leading from the main lobby and a recently opened a greeter’s desk located in the lobby. The volunteers at these locations are able to direct visitors and patients to the location they are seeking. The greeter’s desk in the lobby opened at Romero’s request.
“Some people come in and don’t know where to go,” Auxiliary director of volunteer services Nancy Bell said. “We found that they were getting lost. Some people who were waiting in the lobby just want to talk.”
They are able to direct visitors to patient rooms, the laboratory if they are coming for tests or to the different departments of the hospital. They check on people in the surgery waiting room, offering them complimentary coffee. Often they will personally escort visitors and patients to their destination.
Helping Patients
“We have two different medical records offices — one for hospital records and one for doctors records,” Bell said. “Many people aren’t aware of that. The doctor’s records are hard to find so we often take them there.”
Two members of the Auxiliary are helping scan documents in the medical records department as the hospital is converting from paper to electronic data storage.
The information/surgery desk in the hallway also sells coffee, drinks and snacks. Mondays, donuts donated by Dino Martinez at Lovin Oven, sell out quickly.
Patients being dropped off at the front entrance who need the use of a wheelchair can pick one up in the lobby, courtesy of the Auxiliary, which used its funds to purchase the wheelchairs.
“Brenda (Romero) has a wish list,” Bell said. “This time she asked for plants for the lobby.”
Longtime Volunteers
Bell has been with the Auxiliary 30 years and recently received the Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
“A friend of mine at church asked me to join and from there I haven’t stopped since,” she said. “I enjoy volunteering or I wouldn’t have been here 30 years.”
She is not the longest volunteer. Jeanelle Schultz holds that distinction, having been with the Auxiliary for 43 years. Friends and family seem to be one of the biggest reasons for initially joining the Auxiliary. Along with the camaraderie that permeates the atmosphere among the volunteers, it’s the work and the sense of giving back to the community that keeps them coming back.
“I enjoy every day just being here,” Larry Vigil, one of only two men in the Auxiliary. “Just being able to help out. They’ve accepted me as one of their own. I help them stock, clean and do the register. All our customers make us happy.”
Gift Shop
Across the hall from the information/surgery desk is the primary source of income for the Auxiliary, the hospital gift shop. They also sell snacks and drinks that are often gobbled up by hospital employees. Because it is a nonprofit, the store charges no tax on what it sells and all its employees are volunteers. In addition to items that are purchased on a buying trip to Dallas and from sales representatives that stop by the store, the gift shop offers some unique items created by members of the Auxiliary.
Sandra Giron, who also arranges fresh flowers for the gift shop, was looking for a way to display the artificial flowers. Now she creates sand art in the containers that hold the flowers, sometimes using everyday items like empty maple syrup bottles or heart shaped vases.
“It just kind of came to me one evening,” she said. “I needed something to hide the base of the flowers.”
Multi-colored layers of sand create landscape scenes in the base of the flowers, most depicting the mountains of Northern New Mexico.
“Being a volunteer just makes me feel satisfied with life,” Giron said.
Shirley Chiello orders the snacks and drinks for the gift shop, using the skills she gained while managing Center Market with husband Pete Chiello. She also crochets blankets and baby outfits for sale at the gift shop.
“It’s just something for a source of income for the gift shop,” she said.
The gift shop has been managed by Romero for the last 2.5 years. She has also served as treasurer.
“I knew the ropes,” she said. “To me it is not stressful. I enjoy everything I do.”
Religious items are among the shop’s best sellers. There are also wind chimes and novelty items, along with clothes and dolls. The gift shop can take special requests and does free gift wrapping.
Revenue Numbers
In 2010, the most recent figures available, the gift shop had gross sales of $119,793 and a gross profit of $38,882. The money that the Auxiliary takes in from its gift shop and from its fundraisers goes to its general fund.
The Auxiliary will begin selling tickets at bank lobbies throughout Española in September for its Nov. 2 Hollyberry Fair, where there will be a drawing for donated prizes. The top prize is a hand-carved chest by Pete Chiello, an Honorary Auxiliary member. It’s the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Auxiliary.
There are other fundraisers held throughout the year including three scrub sales — the sale of hospital garments, clothing and accessories like stethoscopes. Two “Books are Fun” sales and several jewelry sales are also held throughout the year in the lobby. The Auxiliary uses the proceeds from the gift shop and fundraisers, which totaled $48,000 in 2010, to purchase equipment for the Hospital and furnishings for the grounds and buildings.
Healing Garden
Outdoors on the west side of the main lobby is a new Healing Garden created through a collaborative effort between the Auxiliary, the Rotary Club of Española and the Hospital.
“Members of the Rotary and the Auxiliary showed up with their shovels,” Auxiliary President Gabrielle Rodriguez said.
In 2011, the Auxiliary purchased the fountain for the Garden as well as iron benches for the Garden, the front of the Hospital and outside of the Emergency Room. Other purchases included an ice machine and fountain for the Radiology Department, an ultra sound television monitor and a hookup for it. Rocking chairs were purchased for the lobby, as well as ficus trees. A total of $18,988.04 was donated to the Hospital in 2011 from the Auxiliary for these purchases.
Among the purchases already made in 2012 are a $16,500 shuttle bus to help take patients and visitors from the parking lot to the hospital, as well as more rocking chairs. The latest item on Romero’s “Wish List” was plants for the garden that the Auxiliary is in the process of purchasing. The Hospital is adding a new building that will provide more private rooms to its capacity with Oct. 27 slated as its grand opening.
Scholarships
In addition to donations made to the Hospital for purchases, the Auxiliary awards scholarships to students that are entering into a medical-related field. In 2011, the Auxiliary awarded $11,200 in scholarships. So far in 2012, the Auxiliary has awarded $9,400 in scholarships.
Among the recipients are 10 students attending Northern New Mexico College and one each attending Southern Columbia University, Texas Tech University and Grand Canyon University. One of the recipients is seeking a Master’s Degree, while another is working toward a Doctorate. The scholarships range from $500 to $900.
“They must have been accepted into a medically-related field,” Scholarship Chairperson Elizabeth Sandoval said. “We award them according to need and the number of hours they are taking. We look at their grade-point-average.”
The paperwork is then presented to the Board by President Gabrielle Rodriguez for approval. The checks are then issued to the business offices of the applicable colleges and universities by scholarship committee member Beulah Sandoval and letters of congratulations sent to the recipients.
The Auxiliary issues scholarships for the fall, spring and summer semesters and is in the process of awarding them for the fall semester. The deadline for fall was Aug. 1, while the deadline for spring will be Dec. 1 and the deadline will be May 1, 2013 for next summer.
Youth Volunteers
The Auxiliary operates a Youth Volunteer Program. As a former manager of the program, Sandoval would like to see it reinvigorated. During the time she was program manager, the youth volunteers had as many as 28 members. There are presently just five.
The youth volunteers help in different departments where they are assigned. They help check on patient’s water and blankets, file records and folders and wipe down tables after physical therapy. They need to volunteer two or more hours a week.
“They get a taste of what happens in a hospital,” Sandoval said. “I’d like to see it revitalized this year. Our goal was to get students who wanted to go on and do something in the medical field.”
Those youth volunteers can indirectly benefit from the free hours they put in at the hospital, including financially, despite being volunteers. Española Valley High School 2005 graduate Rebecca Bustamante was a youth volunteer while attending high school and recently graduated from New Mexico State University with two bachelor’s degrees. Most impressively, she did it without accumulating the debt that often burdens students when they leave school.
“Being a volunteer helped me get a lot of scholarships,” Bustamante said. “Working with the nurses I did a lot of listening and learning.”
Bustamante is working in the hospital pharmacy and will be pursuing her degree in pharmacology. She wants to return and give back to community.
Also wanting to return is 2006 graduate Melissa Trujillo, who will be pursuing a degree as a registered nurse. She currently works as a nurse’s tech in the emergency room of the Hospital.
Being a youth volunteer introduced me to the medical field and I loved it,” she said. “ It made me want to enter nursing. When I become an RN (registered nurse) I want to come back to the place where I started.”
Sandoval advised both Bustamante and Trujillo about applying for one of the Auxiliary’s scholarships.
“Young people are just so wonderful,” she said.
The Auxiliary is always seeking new members.
“We certainly need more volunteers,” Auxiliary President Rodriguez said. “Other departments have asked us to assist them but we’re limited to what we can do by the number of volunteers. We could do so much more.”
Those interested in becoming a member of the Española Hospital Auxiliary should call 505-367-4473.