Volunteer who enjoys cheering up patients honored

Walk into the main entrance of St. Joseph Hospital in Bangor, and chances are someone wearing a maroon top will greet you. Make your way to central registration and someone else clad in maroon will guide you to your next destination.

No, the employees are not color coordinating. Maroon smocks and vests are the standard uniform for the 67 volunteers that spend their time making being at a hospital a little bit nicer.

“Our volunteers are so valuable and are such a critical part of the organization, part of the fiber of what we are,” said Diane Galutia, media relations and community development at St. Joseph Hospital. “I can’t begin to explain what we would do without them.”

Annually, the volunteers vote on their peers and select an individual to receive the Mother Angela Award for volunteer of the year. This year’s winner was Patrick McDonough, 74.

McDonough has not been volunteering for a long period of time. He joined the ranks about two years ago after his wife died.

“It was around our 47th wedding anniversary. We were talking about our 50th approaching, and she said she knew she wouldn’t make it,” said McDonough. “She had been sick for a long time and she said, ‘If anything ever happens to me, I don’t want you hanging around the house. You go and volunteer. You’ll like St. Joe’s,’ so a month after she died I came here.”

The maroon vest that McDonough proudly wears is speckled with pins. One in particular has special meaning. It bears the name Vivian and was purchased for his wife. An ornate gold angel sits above it.

“I have another angel that is less fancy at home,” he said, with a hint of shakiness in his voice, “but she deserves the fancy one.”

McDonough misses his wife “quite a bit,” but feels useful volunteering. He puts in approximately 30 hours a week and does a variety of tasks throughout the hospital. He even spent four hours getting electrocardiograms so the nursing graduate students could practice on a live person.

“I have worked with him from the beginning,” said volunteer Minerva Proctor, 73. “He is a very nice man who will do anything people ask him to. And he is always laughing with the patients. He really deserves to be volunteer of the year.”

His favorite duty is working in central registration because, he said, he enjoys “mixing with the patients and cheering them up.”

McDonough has developed quite a reputation, which extends from outsiders to the very top of the organization. He recalls being in an elevator one day with a deliveryman and Sister Mary Norberta, president of the hospital.

“The guy asked me if I was behaving myself,” he said with a chuckle, “and before I could answer, Sister Norberta said ‘He doesn’t know how.'”

While McDonough is one of a kind, St. Joseph’s would like to have more volunteers.

“We’d like to have a hundred,” said Margaret Puckett, volunteer coordinator. Volunteers go through a process, including interviews and training, she added. Then, they are matched up with jobs they will truly enjoy. Opportunities evolve and sometimes jobs are tailor-made to fully utilize volunteers’ specific talents and interests.

“In every case, the volunteers feel fulfilled and appreciated. And there’s a strong sense of family among them. That’s what impresses me the most,” said Puckett. “They love their experience here, and we work hard to do what is best for them as well as the organization.”

McDonough has put in nearly 2,700 hours of volunteer time. And he has no plans to slow down.

“My wife was a big part of my life and I miss her,” said McDonough. “But, I really appreciate feeling needed. I don’t know what I would have done without these people. This helps me as much as it does them.”

McDonough’s giving nature doesn’t stop at the hospital. When not volunteering he spends quality time with Ursula, the 6-year-old shepherd mix he recently adopted from the humane society.

“I lost myself to her when I first saw her,” he said. “I’m very fortunate.”

I think she’s the lucky one, Pat.

Carol Higgins is director of communications at Eastern Agency on Aging. For information on EAA services or programs, call the Resource and Referral department at 941-2865 or log on www.eaaa.org.