Everyday Heroes
by Arlene Jensen
Hazel Atkinson
When Hazel Atkinson agreed to volunteer at the surgical desk of Aurora Medical Center, she signed on to work one morning a week.
That was five years ago. Now she works three days a week and admits, “I love it so, you’d have to drag me away from there.”
Atkinson’s shift starts at 5 a.m., when the first patients show up with pre-surgery directives. After checking them in, Atkinson answers questions and soothes pre-surgery jitters.
“I enjoy people and I love it when it’s really busy,” she says. “Since my husband’s death, volunteering has been my salvation. I’ve found my purpose. I feel needed.”
Clearly, Aurora needs her too. In May, the facility gave Atkinson an award for completing 7,000 volunteer hours.
The Aurora assignment is just one of the many opportunities for volunteering through RSVP, an acronym for Retired & Senior Volunteer Program. The program urges people 55 and older to participate more completely in the life of the community through volunteer service.
Besides her work on the medical center surgical desk, Atkinson is in charge of the annual Aurora bake sale fundraiser. When it began, the bake sale earned $446. This year the fund drive raised $1,913, and Hazel is determined to hit $2,000 in 2006.
Money from the bake sale goes to the Aurora Medical Center Charitable Fund and is disbursed to community programs, including Geriatric Assessment Center, Greatest Need Fund, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner Treatment Program and Woman’s Health and Education Resource Center.
Atkinson was born and raised in Danville, Va., and came to Kenosha with her husband, Jack, in 1978. He was an executive with several Chrysler dealerships in Wisconsin and Illinois.
During 48 years of marriage, Hazel and Jack loved to travel. They visited historic sites throughout the country and also attended NASCAR races. With their three children, Allan, Karen and Sharon, they logged thousands of miles in their Airstream motor home.
One of Hazel’s fondest memories of the family trips is sewing red shirts and white pants for the whole family to wear at Disney World.
Jack’s death in 1998 was a stunning blow to Hazel.
“I was angry that he left me,” she recalls. “I felt like I didn’t have a life.”
But a newspaper advertisement seeking volunteers at Aurora turned her life around. Since the medical center is only about a mile from her home, it was an easy trip. But after making her initial contact, she still wasn’t sure that volunteering was for her.
Then she received a call from Aurora’s Peggy Crane, who urged Hazel to volunteer to staff the reception desk. Soon she shifted from reception to the surgical desk where she has worked ever since.
Volunteering, she says, has been “a lifesaver!” She has made many good friends at Aurora.
“In my next life,” she jokes, “I want to come back as somebody in the health field, maybe a great technician, someone who could find a cure for cancer.”
RSVP offers volunteers like Hazel a wide choice of assignments, such as working with children as classroom assistants or mentors or helping with programs that serve seniors.
Short term assignments include helping with Walk for the Health of It!, Danskin Triathlon, Tall Ships, Holiday House and the Winter Wraps program.
Long term continuing assignments include volunteering at schools, assisted living and nursing homes and supporting a multitude of projects such as the Aurora position chosen by Atkinson.
RSVP is one of the programs that operates under the auspices of Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services, Inc. (KAFASI), 7730 Sheridan Road.
To learn more about volunteerism through KAFASI, please contact Dana Tehako-Esser, Volunteer Services Coordinator, at (262) 658-3508 ext.120.
