{"id":71351,"date":"2016-04-18T11:06:29","date_gmt":"2016-04-18T18:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theavtimes.com\/?p=71351"},"modified":"2016-04-21T11:14:52","modified_gmt":"2016-04-21T18:14:52","slug":"av-hospital-says-thank-you-to-volunteers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/2016\/04\/18\/av-hospital-says-thank-you-to-volunteers\/","title":{"rendered":"AV Hospital says \u201cThank You\u201d to volunteers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pearl
Pearl Bogard, who has volunteered more than 4,000 hours at the hospital in just five years, accepts her certificate of recognition [contributed]<\/figcaption><\/figure>LANCASTER – At a special volunteer appreciation banquet Thursday, April 14, Antelope Valley Hospital recognized its 500 volunteers who collectively contributed nearly 60,000 hours of service to the hospital in 2015.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Volunteers
Volunteers Karen and Chuck Duty, who together have volunteered more than 1,000 hours, pose with pet-therapy volunteers, Daisy Mae and Cody Jake. [contributed]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\u201cWe are fortunate to have a wonderful team of volunteers who give so much of their time to care for our patients,\u201d stated John Rossfeld, chief executive officer at AVH. \u201cNot only do they donate their time, but volunteers also run programs that raise thousands of dollars every year and have directly contributed to many improvements and enhancements throughout the hospital. The entire community benefits from their generosity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The celebration, held at Hellenic Center in Lancaster, included special recognition for milestone years of volunteer service. The honorees were <\/span>Jacquelyn Gunsten<\/b>, 35 years; <\/span>Maggie Sullivan<\/b>, 30 years;<\/span> Dan Beasley, Janet Fischer, Judy Ibbotson and Marsha Pedersen,<\/b> 25 years; and <\/span>Joseph Leath<\/b>, 20 years. <\/span><\/p>\n

Recognition was also given to the volunteers who contributed the most hours during their tenure — <\/span>Judy Ibbotson <\/b>and <\/span>Bobbie Patton <\/b>with 13,000 hours, and <\/span>Lou Arnold<\/b> with 12,000 hours.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cVolunteers are very much a part of the AVH family,\u201d stated Mary Binkowski, director of volunteer resources at AVH. \u201cThey make a difference every day in the lives of our patients, their families and the entire community.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The hospital relies on the talents of volunteers to support staff by greeting, visiting with and escorting patients and their families, distributing comfort items, filing, organizing, managing the pet therapy program, and other duties. Morethan 30 chaplains regularly donate their time to provide pastoral care at AVH. <\/span><\/p>\n

Fundraising groups such as the Alpha Charter Guild and the AVH Auxiliary have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the hospital since their founding. Volunteers staff the Auxiliary Gift Shops located in the main hospital and the Women and Infants Pavilion, as well as the \u201cNew to You\u201d thrift store located at 329 West Avenue I in Lancaster. The Alpha Charter Guild\u2019s primary fundraiser is the annual \u201cHourglass Debutante Presentation Ball,\u201d which it has been coordinating since the Guild\u2019s establishment in 1965.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Teen Volunteer Program, established in 1958, is one of the largest in Southern California, with more than 200 teen volunteers participating year-round. Designed for high school students, it can help young people acquire workplace experience and develop networking opportunities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Every April, during National Healthcare Volunteer Week, healthcare organizations nationwide recognize volunteers.\u00a0<\/span>For more information about Antelope Valley Hospital\u2019s volunteer program call 661\u2011949\u20115105 or visit the volunteer section of the hospital\u2019s website<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

[Information via news release from Antelope Valley Hospital.]<\/span><\/em><\/h5>\n

–<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LANCASTER – At a special volunteer appreciation banquet Thursday, April 14, Antelope Valley Hospital recognized its 500 volunteers who collectively contributed nearly 60,000 hours of service to the hospital in 2015. \u201cWe are fortunate to have a wonderful team of volunteers who give so much of their time to care for our patients,\u201d stated John […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71353,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71351"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theavtimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}