 Pictured at the Gala recipient reception are Karen Emerick, Robyn Hammonds, Terry Ley and Alice Ruiz — all a part of the executive auxiliary board — revel in the announcement the Auxilians are being honored at the 2008 Gala. Photo provided PLYMOUTH — The spirit of volunteerism is behind many success stories. Saint Joseph Health Center of Plymouth is celebrating that fact.
Aware that the heart of the volunteer is the center of their success, the St. Joseph Health Center in Plymouth — part of the St. Joseph Regional Medical Center — believes that secret has been kept too well in the opinion of the committee that oversees the center’s annual benefit gala.
The gala will take place Friday, April 18, starting at 6 p.m. at the Swan Lake Resort in Plymouth. This year, the honorees at the event will be all of those volunteers, collectively, without whom the Health Center and the Medical Center would be at a huge loss, according to Ginny Buchman, herself a volunteer since 2000 at the Health Center.
Buchman says that the Health Center, located at 116 E. Washington St. in Plymouth, saw over 2,000 volunteer hours last year, and that’s not including the many more hours logged by volunteers at the main St. Joseph Regional Medical Center campus on Lake Avenue.
“The purpose of the Health Center is to serve the underserved and working poor of Marshall County,” says Buchman. “Dr. (Michael) Deery was the one who thought there should be something for (them), and it opened in 1999.”
Doctors volunteered 173 hours at the center in 2007, according to Buchman, and dental and hygienists totaled 144. There are just five paid employees at the Center: a social worker (who is currently also the Center’s interim director, Connie Deery of Culver), a nurse practitioner, a nurse assistant, a nurse technician, and a receptionist and clerical worker. The rest, she says, is volunteer labor.
In 2007 the Health Center served 1,538 patients. 7,297 prescriptions were written amounting to $845,881 of pharmacy costs, all free to the Center’s patients. 1,828 hours by Center personnel were used in filling those prescriptions.
“The medication is sent from pharmaceutical companies,” Buchman says. “We have a contract with Kroger so we can write prescriptions and pay Kroger.”
The Center does not take children, Buchman explains, and care recipients there are required to be Marshall County residents without any other medical coverage, including Medicaid, Medi-care, pension, and insurance. There are also household income guidelines. The Center does not take walk-ins, but instead sets up appointments with a social worker to qualify individuals for services.
The Health Center is the direct recipient of proceeds from the “Catch the Spirit” 2008 gala. Tickets to the event are $75 per person, plus there are opportunities for sponsorships from companies or anyone interested. This is the gala’s 11th year
At the gala, there will be a social hour with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, dinner, the evening’s program, and dancing from 9 to 12. The master of ceremonies for the evening will be WNDU-TV morning anchor Tricia Sloma.
Those interested in gala information, tickets or sponsorships may contact Julie Julie VanDeWater-Bailey at (574) 935-2264. The St. Joseph Regional Medical Center’s local, Culver telephone number is 574-842-4763.
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