Washington Hospital volunteers making difference
Each year, the money raised by the auxiliary is donated to the hospital to support patient services, programs and equipment. To date the WHS Washington Hospital Auxiliary has donated more than $6.5 million, and their most recent check of $100,000 donated to the Washington Health System Foundation is earmarked for an upcoming special project. From left are Marlene Rhoades, Sue Pomykala, Sara Schumacher, Jean Cline and Meg Steele.
Gift baskets were raffled off at Washington Hospital.
This year’s junior leadership board recently donated a check for $2,500 to the WHS Children’s Therapy Center for updated testing materials used to help identify children who may need occupational therapy, speech language therapy and physical therapy. Top row, from left, are Emily Miller, Jennifer Kraus, Kara Landay and Brittany Stewart; bottom row, Atharv Bhave, Ashton Clark, Stephanie Keelon, Camryn Whipple, Taylor Neiberg, Veronica Lezeau and Megan Geer.
The Washington Health System Washington Hospital Auxiliary, formally organized in 1923, is a group of nearly 400 men and women who volunteer their time to support the mission of Washington Health System.
The volunteers actively support the hospital by assisting with fundraising activities as well as volunteering in clinical and nonclinical departments.
Washington Health System’s Junior Volunteer program offers a unique and rewarding volunteer opportunity for teens age 14-18 that are looking to fulfill volunteer hours for special organizations or for those interested in exploring a potential career in medicine.
The program typically has between 70 to 90 volunteer high school students, with each committing to no less than 50 hours a year, year-round.
Current student volunteers come from a number of school districts including Upper St. Clair, Peters Township, Trinity, Washington, Avella, Bentworth, Central Catholic in Wheeling, W.Va., Pittsburgh Central Catholic, Oakland Catholic, California, Fort Cherry, Linsley, Bishop Canevin, McGuffey, Canon-McMillian, Beth-Center, Chartiers-Houston and Lincoln Arts Park Performing. The largest group of volunteers comes from Peters, which is closely followed by Canon-McMillian and Upper St. Clair.
The Junior Volunteers have a self-elected junior leadership board, comprised of their peers, who help set policies, initiate fundraisers and recruit others to join their ranks. This year’s Junior Leadership Board recently donated a check for $2,500 to the WHS Children’s Therapy Center for updated testing materials used to help identify children who may need occupational therapy, speech language therapy and physical therapy.
These new evaluation tools will enable the WHS team to formulate and provide children and their families with an individualized treatment plan to help them work together on improving their functional skills in the home and in community environments. Every year, WHS therapists provide approximately 46,000 treatment sessions to hundreds of children within the Washington region.
For more information on the WHS Junior Volunteer program in Washington, call Rebecca Biddle at 724- 223-7114 or email her at biddle@whs.org.