Special to the Review
The Athens Review
Athens — By Doris Gardenhire
Well, in spite of the weather, our bake sale on Friday February 12th was a huge success. Most of the sales, of course, went to hospital staff and the nurses, since most of you were sensible enough not to drive in the snow. Nurses are always supportive of our fund-raising efforts. They appreciate our helping them with scholarships, and we appreciate their supporting us.
Speaking of which, one of our scholarship students is Christine Green of Malakoff. Having graduated as a Licensed Vocational Nurse in December, she is now working on the first floor. She plans to work for a year while taking prerequisites for the Registered Nurse transition program at TVCC. Her ultimate goal is to be an Emergency Room nurse here at ETMC Athens. “I just love helping others,” she says.
Christine lives in Malakoff with her husband Joseph and children Haley, age 5, and Jared, age 9. ETMC Athens is a big part of their lives, as Joseph is an ETMC paramedic, and she herself had worked previously in the Business Office here.
When asked if she could have gone to TVCC without the scholarship, she replied, “Probably not.” Besides the money, she said the best thing about the scholarship is that she knew she had a job when she finished. (LVN students promise to work at ETMC for two years.)
“I plan to be here forever. This is our home, and everyone here is so friendly. We have many great nurses, and I am learning so much from them.”
“Yes, sometimes the job is stressful,” she added, “but if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. And I want to work for what I get.”
So the auxiliary says Welcome, Christine, and may we have many more bright-eyed, compassionate, dedicated nurses in the future.
If you saw the Performing Arts Center’s production of “Arsenic and Old Lace,” you surely enjoyed Jim Alexander as Teddy Roosevelt. We’re proud to say that Jim is one of our volunteers.
Thankfully, we have three new volunteers, Elfreida Jenkins, Mary Ellen Allan, and Jonathan Perkins. They will help fill some of the gaps we have from deaths and moves.
More thanks are due to all you nice people out there. It makes our work worthwhile when you are so supportive. For instance, one nice gentleman came by, saw the lollipop tree, asked about the nursing scholarship program, and then made a donation and told the desk people to give lollipops to the next few kids who came in.
And of course, those of you who bring stuffed animals and goods for our bake sales. Nancy Duff and Nancy Hilton are really great about helping us with that.
I’ve warned you already that construction is going on around ETMC, so be prepared, when you come to see us. They are in the process of enlarging the front parking lot, and when finished there will be multiple entrances instead of the one we have. Please do observe the reserved spaces. Our volunteers deserve their places! At the last auxiliary meeting we saw pictures of what the hospital will look like when construction is completed, and believe me, it will be beautiful and much more convenient.
ETMC also has a new executive secretary to Mr. Wallace and Adam Willmann. Anita Isbell retired, and we will miss her. However, we welcome Karen Dodson, who lives in Edgewood and previously worked at Baylor Hospital in Dallas. She says she likes being at ETMC Athens much better! We welcome her great smile and pleasant attitude.
Coming up: The drawing for the beautiful baby basket will be March 24. Raffle tickets as usual are $1 each or six for $5.
April 2 will be the Easter Bake Sale (Did you realize Easter comes early this year?). In conjunction with the bake sale the Gift Shop will have a clearing out sale, so be sure to come out on that day. Hopefully it won’t be snowing!
A new quilt raffle begins April 14, and the Masquerade Jewelry Sale is April 27 and 28. This is the very popular $5 jewelry sale, but they also have purses, scarves, books, blouses, and other items.
Darlene Forshage, Director of Tourism for Athens, spoke at our March meeting. She currently is contacting all volunteer organizations to list them in a brochure designed to show visitors what all Athens has to offer, especially for retirees. She also needs volunteers for the Visitors’ Center.
The monthly general meeting now begins at 9:15, after the breakfast buffet that ETMC provides at 8:30. We’d love to have you come join us.
