Giving Back to the Community

Issue: July - 2022

We’re excited to be welcoming volunteers back to Highlands-Cashiers Hospital after a pause due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Not only do volunteers perform meaningful work and beau-tification here at the hospital and Eckerd Living Center, they bring a loving spirit that permeates our spaces. We so deeply appreciate that intangible but critical spirit.If you’ve volunteered in the past at Highlands-Cashiers Hospital, we happily welcome you back. If you haven’t volun-teered here yet but are looking for a great opportunity to help your community, this is definitely it. And as any volunteer will tell you, the gifts they get back in return from giving their time and energy to our patients and residents is immeasurable. There are a multitude of volunteer opportunities here, depend-ing on what your individual interests and talents are. You can help at our main reception desk, welcoming people and ushering patients to their destinations, assist staff with things such as administrative tasks and distributing reading materials to patients, or work with clinical staff on a range of duties from cleaning a screening machine and restocking supplies to offering a patient some comfort. For volunteers with green thumbs, the Mountain Garden Club keeps the Eckerd Living Center Gardens looking beautiful. The gardens, as you can imagine, offer much healing to our residents and their visitors. Volunteers also keep residents company and offer important opportunities for them to socialize. I know that our residents have missed interacting with our volunteers and the energy volunteers bring to the facility. Volunteers have even been drafted for calling Bingo games, so the possibilities are endless.We’ve talked many times in this column about how healthcare providers are called to the work, and to truly making a dif-ference in people’s lives. Volunteering at Highlands-Cashiers Hospital gives people who aren’t in healthcare the same opportunity to be rewarded by working with patients and supporting our great healthcare workers.If you’re interested in finding out more about volunteer opportunities with us, visit missionhealth.org/highlands and click on “Volunteer at Highlands-Cashiers Hospital” link. You may also call our Volunteer Coordinator, Jeannie Macleod, at (828) 526-1345. Our volunteer application can be accessed on the website above as well. We will contact you and support you in completing the required activities to become a volunteer. You will be required to complete some pre-volunteer activities which include background checks, health screening, and education. In thinking about ways you can give back to your community, there’s no better choice than to volunteer your time and service to Highlands-Cashiers Hospital and Eckerd Living Center. We deeply appreciate it.

by Tom Neal, CEO/CNO, Highlands-Cashiers Hospital