By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current

Julie West admits she will miss seeing the volunteers and staff she has worked with in the last 20 years at Hammond-Henry Hospital, but she also looks forward to spending more time with family.

West is retiring form her position as Volunteer & Auxiliary Manager at Hammond-Henry Hospital, and will be honored at a retirement party on Friday, Feb. 17.

When asked to share some history of the Hospital Auxiliary, West explained the Auxiliary is an independent non-profit 501c3 organization, formed in 1960 by several dedicated volunteers.

In 1973, Dorothy Ryan was the first volunteer/Auxiliary Manager; Betsy Wyffels was named to that position in 1991, and West was hired by former CEO Brad Solberg in 2003.

“Both Dorothy and Betsy laid the groundwork for a strong volunteer program,” West said “I was hired at HHH at a time when hospital services were expanding and there were many additional opportunities for volunteers to assist. My previous work was with the University of Illinois and Iowa State University Extension programs where I worked with volunteers in 4-H and youth development programs.”

“We are blessed in this community to have many individuals who give of their time and talents, not only at HHH, but in many wonderful community programs and efforts. HHH currently has about 185 active volunteers and almost 200 Auxiliary members that contributed over 9,000 hours of volunteer service in 2022.”

West said that number is down a bit from pre-Covid numbers, but is dependent on the needs in the hospital…

She commented, ”One of my favorite quotes is by Stephen Ross: ‘Not everything that can be counted counts. Not everything that counts can be counted’…”Certainly this reflects the notion that the value of the volunteer is not only in counting service hours or dollars raised, but by the value of the smile, encouragement, helpfulness and empathy that volunteers share with an anxious patient or visitor.”

West also reflected on the knowledge she has gained from the volunteers with whom she has worked…”For example, I had little experience in retail sales and so I learned a lot from the late Virginia Humbert who led the Gift Shop for many years and developed many of the policies and procedures that make it successful. The Gift Shop raises a large part of the funds the Auxiliary uses to purchase hospital equipment and provide health career scholarships.”

Some of the favorite memories West will take with her in retirement include having been part of the Auxiliary’s 50-year celebration in 2010…”At that time the Auxiliary pledged, and contributed $100,000 toward the major hospital renovation and construction project. That’s quite an accomplishment for a group of hospital volunteers! ” she said.

Through the years, the Auxiliary has provided funds for many pieces of hospital equipment to better serve patients,” West said.

“I have especially enjoyed the teen volunteers that I have worked with as part of the Junior Volunteer program,” she said. “Many have pursued health careers and have been recipients of the Auxiliary’s health career scholarships – which is currently about $25,000/year. It is especially fun to see some of the young people that have been part of the volunteer program come back as excellent employees at our hospital.”

“It seems like I do something different every day in my position at HHH, which is part of the challenge and fun,” she said.
“I know I will greatly miss seeing all the volunteers and staff that I have worked with these past 20 years, but I’m hopeful that I will stay connected and cross paths with many of them,” West said, and added that she hopes to volunteer at HHH sometime in the future.

In retirement, she looks forward to having more time to spend with family….”My husband Bruce and I have two grown children, Callie and Paul. We have four young grandchildren; our parents, and extended family.”