Skip to contents
In This Issue:
Last year, volunteers gave 800,000 hours of service to the hospital, and earlier this week, BWH extended its gratitude with an elegant banquet for volunteers and their families in the Cabot Atrium.
“We are inspired by your sharing, your enthusiasm, your energy and especially your time,” BWH President Gary Gottlieb, MD, MBA, told the volunteers gathered at the celebration. “We are a stronger community and a nicer place because of you. Thank you so very much.”
Lisa Ponton, JD, vice president of HR, praised the passion of volunteers. “You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love to serve,” she said, quoting Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Volunteers heard personal reflections from their colleague Enny Wiederhold, a volunteer baby cuddler in the NICU, whom NICU Nurse Manager Marianne Cummings, RN, calls “the Baby Whisperer.” Wiederhold came to the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in 1954 from Holland as a student nurse and worked there until she got married and had three sons. Then, in 1991, she was “looking for something to do” and returned to BWH.
“It has been an unbelievable experience,” said Wiederhold, who dedicates three days a week to holding and lulling the premature babies in the NICU to sleep. “It’s marvelous to do something besides be at home. It really keeps you young, and you learn something new every day.”
Shelita Bailey, director of the Office for Sponsored Staff and Volunteer Services, commended volunteers for their selfless service to 85 departments throughout the hospital.
“I’m honored to work with this diverse, giving group of people,” she said.
Volunteers and their guests enjoyed a slideshow of photos, dinner and music by Living Water.