Imagine going through a medical procedure without having a friend or family member by your side. Thanks to volunteers at Chandler Regional Medical Center, patients don’t have to worry about not having a hand to hold when they’re anxious or a blanket to warm them when they’re cold.
With more than 650 volunteers at both Chandler Regional and Mercy Gilbert medical centers, patients receive care on a more personal level.
This month, from April 10-16, the centers celebrated their volunteer workforce during Volunteer Appreciation Week.
“We always say the volunteers provide the gift of time,” said Barb Farmer, manager of volunteers. “They really make the patients more comfortable; when the volunteers hold the patients’ hands, it makes the experience easier for them.”
Among volunteers being honored is Moe Kopp, who is ending 25 years of service and moving to New York to be closer to his family. He turned 96 this year.
“I got to know some of the doctors pretty well,” he said. “I enjoyed what I was doing because that’s what I wanted to do.”
After retiring from his veterinary practice in New York, Kopp gravitated to volunteer work to, as he explained it, help his community. Twenty years later, he moved to Arizona and began volunteering at Chandler Regional.
“I worked with nurses who went room to room providing physical therapy,” he said. “I did that because when I was riding a bike in my 50s I fell over, and went into physical therapy at the time, so I had personal experience with it.”
After helping patients in physical therapy, Kopp started volunteering in the Emergency Department, doing similar work for patients there, he said. “I supplied food and crackers, then I made beds, made people coffee, or got them a warm towel or blanket.”
Some of the patients served by volunteers come back to join the effort themselves, explaining that they’re showing appreciation for the experience they had while hospitalized, Farmer said.
“The average length of time that we have volunteers for is two years, so it’s pretty incredible that we’ve had Moe for so long,” she said. “We’ll often get patients, or their family members, come back to volunteer themselves.”
Kopp said he is moving back to New York to be closer to his son, who lives in Maryland. The 2,600 hours he has put in at Chandler Regional, though, will remain an integral part of who he is, Kopp said.
“It just gave me the satisfaction that I can help the (patients) out when they need it,” Kopp said.
