Providing Care and Compassion

{ Feature }

Giving from their Hearts

Volunteers with an interest in giving their time, talent and uniqueness to make a positive impact

Story by Dalondo Moultrie

Photos by Victoria Gaytan

About 60 years ago, about 60 women started an organization that has changed a little over the years, but still today continues a mission of supporting staff, employees, visitors and more at the local hospital.

Through the years, the Guadalupe Regional Medical Center Volunteers continue to give to and help improve Guadalupe Regional Medical Center in Seguin, said Teresa Grimm, GRMC Volunteers CEO.

“In October of 1961, 59 community-minded women chartered the Guadalupe Valley Women’s Auxiliary,” she said. “It’s known today as the Guadalupe Regional Medical Center Volunteers.”

The group has a purpose of promoting and advancing the welfare of the hospital by serving its patients and the community at large, Grimm said. It’s currently made up of a group of people who want to do good and give back to their community.

Guadalupe Regional Medical Center Volunteers is an amazing group of folks, said Guadalupe Regional Medical Foundation CEO Elaine Bennett.

“Their kindness is another reflection of the culture we have here because they care about the patients that come in for services and they want to make sure they direct you in the right place,” she said. “They’re just an amazing extension of our hospital.”

After the Guadalupe Valley Women’s Auxiliary formed years ago, the group was recognized by another name, Grimm said.

Only until relatively recently, volunteers wore pink jackets and were fondly called the Pink Ladies.

Then, more men started volunteering, the jackets were switched to blue and volunteers stopped going by the fond pseudonym. And around 2008 or 2009, an official name change came, Grimm said.

“When we became the GRMC Volunteers and were no longer an auxiliary and had more men as part of our organization, they became the GRMC Volunteers and no longer the Pink Ladies,” she said.

Volunteers help in many different areas of the hospital. They meet and greet visitors to the hospital, direct patients to areas they need to go for service, push wheelchairs down the hospital hallways and much, much more, said Mary Gomez, a Guadalupe Regional Medical Center Volunteer and president of the group’s board.

After retiring in April 2010 from her job with the United States Department of Agriculture, the walls began closing in at home and Gomez had to get out and do something by February 2011.

“Once you retire, you can’t just stay home, you have to go out and see people,” Gomez said. “This keeps you pretty busy, between this and church. Otherwise, you’re just going to sit in front of that TV.”

Living in Seguin all her life, she’s always known of the hospital. In fact, her son was born there in 1969, Gomez said, making the place almost like her home.

Life long Seguin resident, Gloria Valdez has volunteered at Guadalupe Regional Medical Center nearly a dozen years and helped recruit Gomez to join the fold.

Getting out of the house, enjoying the camaraderie and talking with friends, other volunteers, visitors and staff at the hospital are highlights of her week. But even more keeps her coming back, Valdez said.

“It’s very gratifying, you meet a lot of new people” she said adding that she also volunteers with other groups and organizations to help keep herself going. “I try to stay as busy as I can otherwise, I might be dead by now.”

Volunteers work in the hospital’s gift shop and host regular fundraising events, with proceeds going to purchase equipment and more at Guadalupe Regional Medical Center, said Valdez, who serves at the Volunteers’ board treasurer.

Over the years, the Guadalupe Regional Medical Center Volunteers have donated millions of dollars to the hospital and recently gave a quarter of a million dollars to help fund the new women’s imaging center at the hospital.

They have helped fund many renovations throughout the facility, Grimm said.

“Since, say, 2012, we’ve probably donated probably $2 million to the hospital to different various projects, big needs and little needs alike,” she said.

Women’s health issues are very vital to many of the members, Grimm said. They focus on helping with things like breast cancer and other women’s issues as an important way of helping to support the hospital, she said.

And they do it expecting nothing in return, Grimm said.

“These people are coming here everyday because they want to be here, not because, ‘oh, I have to go and get paid.’ They’re genuinely giving from their hearts,” she said. “They average in age from their early 50s up into their 90s. Just recently, I had one of my 90-year-olds retire.

“That’s pretty impressive; I want to be like that when I get older.”

She’s shared her views with hospital administrators, Grimm said. If ever the time comes when she no longer can work as CEO of the Volunteers, she will gladly join their ranks.

“One thing our Human Resources department does is go around with staff and see how they’re doing, if there’s something else to do in the hospital, what would it be,” Grimm said. “I said the only thing I would want to do is work with the Volunteers.”