WellStar Paulding Volunteer Auxiliary presents donation, scholarships, recognizes service

WellStar Paulding Hospital’s Volunteer Auxiliary held their annual event and recognized service hours from volunteers, installed officers, awarded scholarships, and presented a donation of $100,000 to the WellStar Foundation in June at the Paulding Chamber offices in Dallas.
This year’s donation increased by $10,000 over last year due to several factors, according Auxiliary President Tom Dawson and Tammy Walker, manager, WellStar Paulding Volunteer Services.
Hospital expansion by way of two new floors added in the last year contributed and, said Dawson, better products available and more public traffic in the hospital gift shop, Walker said. “We do fund-raising through vendor sales every month and at the end of our fiscal year the money filters back through the foundation and ultimately comes back to Paulding,” Ms. Walker said.
According to Dawson, with this year’s amount, the Auxiliary is approaching $600,000 cumulative donation to the foundation. WellStar volunteers were recognized at the June 26th event for service ranging from 100 hours up to more than 10,000 hours. Also, three Sally Purcell Scholarships totaling $5,500 were awarded to local students. Recipients were Oluronke Akinrobabu, Bena Hanyard, and Latrecia Hopkins. All of them are currently enrolled in medical programs.
According to Dawson there are currently about 140 adult volunteers that work in everything from the hospital’s gift shop, emergency department, free information desk, on in-patient floors, and elsewhere. Also on site this summer, there are 45 ‘volunteens’ or high-potential local high school students who aspire to medical careers.
As a non-profit organization WellStar is dependent on active volunteers to provide the man-hours, Dawson said. Ms. Walker said volunteers may work with patients, doctors and/or visitors to the hospital, and that volunteering opportunities are open to both men and women.
“The minimum requirement is that they would work one day a week for four hours and a total of 100 hours,” Walker said. “We’re looking for long-term volunteers who have great customer-service skills.” The state-of- the-art WellStar facility in Hiram opened in April 2014, with 56 beds and 40 emergency exam rooms and an emergency department, cancer center, women’s imaging, surgical and other healthcare services.
Volunteers also work at WellStar’s 180-bed nursing and rehab facility in non-licensed tasks, Walker said. For additional information regarding the adult program, contact the volunteer services department at 470-644- 7108, or go to the volunteer link at WellStar.org and apply to the location interested in.

1. (Left to Right) Tom Dawson, WellStar Auxiliary President, Gene Weeks, WellStar Development Director and Carol Barber, Auxiliary Treasurer presented a donation of $100,000 to the WellStar Foundation at the Paulding Chamber offices in Dallas.
2. Auxiliary Officers named were (L to R): Carol Barber, treasurer, Terry Skouden, secretary, Audrey Watts, vice president, Pat Ruppenicker, president-elect, Tom Dawson, president.(Photo: R. Grant)