When it comes to volunteering, Kenosha’s Hazel Atkinson is no rookie. During her six years with the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP), Atkinson has racked up more than 10,500 volunteer hours. In 2007 she received both the Volunteer of the Year award at AuroraMedicalCenter and the Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services Inc. Vista Brick Award for her volunteering services. And earlier this year, on April 19, Atkinson was chosen as the family and aging services’ Volunteer of the Year at the non-profit agency’s second annual volunteer appreciation breakfast at GatewayTechnicalCollege. “She’s a deeply caring person and she really wants to help,” said Darleen Coleman, RSVP director. When Atkinson began volunteering locally in 2000, it had been more than 20 years since she volunteered in her home state of Virginia.
Atkinson is frank about the impetus behind her taking up volunteering again two years after her husband died.
“Aurora saved my life. I was suicidal, that’s all I thought of,” Atkinson said in her soft twang. In her extended grief, it took her two more months to walk in the door of the hospital after first speaking to the volunteer coordinator there.
“Volunteering gave me a reason to live. I like to stay busy, especially at Thanksgiving and Christmas time, that was always my worst time after my husband died,” she said.
Currently Atkinson volunteers at the RSVP bingo games at the Moose Lodge two days per month, writing checks to the game winners.
Last year she worked at the Holiday House Christmas toy distribution and did gift wrapping for the Safe Harbor Humane Society event.
Up until last June, most of her volunteer hours were spent at AuroraMedicalCenter, where she helped patients check in for surgery. Working the hospital surgical desk, she would start her shift at 5 a.m. three days each week.
Atkinson earned four stars for service at Aurora. Stars are awarded for outstanding service. She was nominated for one of them by a woman whose husband was having surgery there. The woman had become distressed after hearing bad news about her husband, and Atkinson reached out to her.
“Hazel saw her needs, and through kind words she soothed and assured the woman. Hazel has the ability to calm tense emotions and ease another’s personal pain,” read an Aurora official in presenting Atkinson the Volunteer of the Year award in 2007.
About a year ago, illness forced her to cut back on her volunteering, and a surgery last July slowed her down even more.
“Aurora is a very good place to volunteer, and they have many great volunteers and they always need more,” Atkinson said.
Looking for a change of pace, she went back to one of her favorite volunteer activities: running a bake sale. Atkinson started the annual bake sale at Aurora a few years ago and set the goal for her first one there at $2,000. The event raised $1,909.
The sale did more than raise money for the hospital. It added a spark to the everyday hospital activities. Last October, she organized a bake sale benefiting RSVP, hoping it will be an annual event. This sale drew in $1,400. This year she has plans for two bake sales for RSVP, which is a program under Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services Inc.
“I’ve always been good at fund-raisers,” Atkinson said. “I love doing the bake sales. I handle everything from start to finish.”
That includes everything from organizing the bakers and their wares, to soliciting businesses for hundreds of dollars in sponsorships, to setting up for the sale and cleaning up afterwards. “She took care of every last detail. It isn’t often that you find a volunteer that’s willing to take on that extra level of responsibility and go the extra mile and do things ordinarily staff would have to do,” RSVP’s Coleman said. She even arranged to give the leftovers from the sale to the ShalomCenter for distribution at the soup kitchen. “Nothing should go to waste, there are too many hungry people in this world,” Atkinson said. Coleman said she is looking forward to seeing the results of Atkinson’s sales. “She’s very enthusiastic, and she knows what she’s doing. She’s got the experience, and once she sets her mind to it, you know she’s going to do it,” Coleman said. Those interested in volunteering can contact Coleman at (262) 658-3508 ext. 115.
KENOSHA NEWS PHOTOS BY BILL SIEL
Hazel Atkinson was named Volunteer of the Year during a recent volunteer appreciation breakfast by Kenosha Area Family and Aging Services Inc. Hazel Atkinson’s volunteer efforts include writing checks to bingo winners at the Moose Lodge. It’s something she does twice a month.
