President’s Message
January 2015
Dear wonderful volunteers:
We had the "Topping Off" ceremony for the new Children's Hospital at VCU on a beautiful,
sunny December 1st. A precious little girl that has many health concerns did the countdown
twice. It was very special.
On a sunny but cold December 11, we had the ground-breaking ceremony for the
new Virginia Treatment Center for Children on the Brook Road campus of CHoR at VCU. A
children's choir from the Richmond City Schools sang several songs to start the program. We
enjoyed the singing very much,
We are saddened by the resignation of Dr. Sheldon Retchin , Vice President of Health
Sciences for Virginia Commonwealth University. He will be missed. He has been a very
supportive friend of the Auxiliary.
Fara Caldwell headed up the Love Lights and Second Hand Santa fundraiser the first week in
December and raised more than $10 thousand. The money will fund the Hematology-Oncology
Prom this spring. Way to go, Fara!!!
Gary Zimmermann, treasurer of MCVH Auxiliary, has tallied the donations of the auxiliary to
the Health System over the years. Some records are missing and so this is not complete. The
records he was able to find show donations in excess of $5 million. Way to go!!!
I wish each of you a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!
JoAnn Burton, President
Holiday Greetings from the Three Bears Gift Shop
Halloween and Thanksgiving are but a memory again this year and December is rapidly flying
by. We are busily preparing for the holiday season and the shop is looking more and more like
Santa’s workshop.
We have several new “elves” working at Three Bears Gift Shop, and if you get the opportunity,
stop by and introduce yourselves. As always we welcome your visits.
The Three Bears Gift Shop will be increasing their holiday hours on Friday and Saturday again
this year, starting the week after Thanksgiving. We will be open 8:00am to 6:30pm on Fridays
and 11:00am to 6:00pm on Saturdays in December. We welcome any Auxilians to come and
help any day through the holidays, as our business ramps up before Christmas. Helping
customers find the right gift for the holidays is both a fun and rewarding experience.
Come by and check out the shop. We have gifts for every need, from handbags and scarves to
jewelry and Christmas décor.
Most of all, this is a time to be thankful. We have a great hospital and a wonderful shop, which
raises money to meet the grant needs of different departments and groups within the VCUHS
system. Thank you for allowing us at Three Bears to meet those needs and thanks to all who
support our mission.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from all of us at Three Bears Gift Shop!
Kris Anderson
Assistant Manager
Three Bears Gift Shop
Love Lights Chair Fara Caldwell and Chaplain Alma working the first shift at Love Lights. Read
about it on the next page!
Love Light Tree ~ 2014
The Medical College of Virginia Hospitals Auxiliary's 30th Annual Love Light Tree – a special
time of recognition, appreciation and remembrance - was held December 1 – 5, 2014, on the
first floor of Main Hospital. To date, $10, 447 has been raised to benefit the 2015 Pediatric
Oncology Prom for children and teens being treated for cancer/chronic hematological
disorders at the Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU. This event had huge support from the
hospital community, the Management Team and the MCVH Auxiliary; for this, we are thankful.
The total receipts of $10,447 can be broken down as follows:
– $1800 in Norfolk Island Pines
– $1685 from Second Hand Santa
– $6,962 from Love Light and Raffle sales.
We were blessed with three items to raffle this year – two sets of RAMS tickets with parking
passes to the VCU vs. Cleveland State game on December 29, 2014, and a Samsung Galaxy 4
Tablet. Brenda Diffendal won the Grand Prize of 2 courtside tickets with parking pass, Dr. James
Whelan won the Second Prize of 4 north-side tickets with parking pass, and Reneé Wilder
(Willow Lawn) won the Samsung Galaxy 4 Tablet.
We thank Donna Walker for conducting sales of Love Lights, trees and raffle tickets at the
Willow Lawn location and to Maria Curran who shuttled trees and materials between Willow
Lawn and the VCU Medical Center.
Our thanks to the 34 members from Management Teams, Administration, and Medical Staff
who served shifts at the sale tables.
Twelve members of the MCVH Auxiliary were at one table or the other over the course of the
week. Special appreciation to Ann Carter, Ginny Little, Rick Dodson, Debbie Sawyer, JoAnn
Burton, Helen Oliver, Mary Gill, Joyce Burgess, Julia Poppell, Judy Hanshaw, Lois Trani,
Charlotte Roberts, Carol Dean, and Susan Byers.
Again, our sincere gratitude to all those who served at the Love Lights table; to Donnie Wyatt,
Leslie Wyatt and Lauren Moore who made the RAMS Tickets available as raffle items; to those
who donated, helped price and then sell the many and varied Second Hand Santa items; to
Infinite Electronics who donated the Samsung Galaxy Tab 4; to Volunteer Services who does
much more than they get credit for; and to those who sent their best wishes for a successful
event.
Please mark your calendars for Love Lights 2015: November 30 – December 4, 2015. As you
pack your decorations this year, if you have Christmas items you plan not to use again, please
consider packing a box for Second Hand Santa 2015!
Please know how much your support is appreciated.
Fara Caldwell
Love Lights 2014 Chair
Arthur Ashe Reading Room
August through November 2014 were busy months at the Arthur Ashe Reading Room, fourth
floor waiting area of the Children’s Pavilion. The volunteer Book Buddies of the Arthur Ashe
Reading Room shared 1,951 books with children of all ages and their families, bringing our
yearly total of books shared to 6,042.
We have four, fun service slots available. Please contact Volunteer Services if you are interested
in becoming an Arthur Ashe Reading Room Book Buddy.
When Book Buddies are on duty, we help the children select an age-and-ability appropriate
book. When a Book Buddy is not on duty, children may select a book from two locations where
we are fortunate to be able to leave books behind. We are able to do this due to strong support
from the Auxiliary, the hospital community, the Children's Museum of Richmond's Book Bank
and St. Joseph's Villa's Donation Center.
The Management Team's September back-to-school book drive yielded just shy of 900 books!!!
While the financial support of the Auxiliary is integral and does not go unnoticed, there were
additional donations of books from Auxiliary members after the Management Team's Back-toschool Book Drive. These, with the annual November donation from Roberta Talley and the
Cardiac Catheterization Lab, pushed the number of donated books received this quarter over
1000!!!! For this we are thankful.
The Arthur Ashe Reading Room has already received 52 books from the SoHo 15,000-book
donation from Jenna & George Beker. The mechanism for requesting these books is
forthcoming. Book Buddy Thelma Mack attended the November 21st meet-and-greet on behalf
of the Arthur Ashe Reading Room.
The support of the Auxiliary and its members allows the Arthur Ashe Reading Room to
persevere in encouraging reading through book ownership. While one of our younger readers
assured me that he was “too modern for books,” his older brother was delighted to select a hard
copy book to carry into his appointment.
Thank you!
Fara Caldwell
From Volunteer Services
As we come to the end of another wonderful year, I want to say thank you again for all of your
service! Here are some announcements as we look forward to another year:
Welcome April Wilson, Volunteer Coordinator! At the end of October, April joined the
Volunteer Services team with Amanda and Chasity. She graduated from George Mason University
with a B.A. in Communication and has two years experience as a Volunteer Coordinator at
Richmond Metropolitan Habitat for Humanity. Her most recent position was in the VCU Health
System Audit and Compliance Services. She is excited to return to her passion of working with
volunteers. In her spare time she enjoys playing tennis, bowling, volunteering, and traveling. If
you have not yet met April in person, please introduce yourself the next time you are in the office!
Congratulations to volunteer Lisa French! I hope you all enjoyed the
many creative works of art that were on display in the Main Hospital lobby
during August and September. This year several volunteers entered works
of their own art to the Ninth Annual Exhibit of the National Arts Program®.
Lisa French won Best in Show for her glass casting of a sand dollar, entitled
Ocean Worn Sand Dollar #2 (see photo). Lisa volunteers at Massey Cancer
Center and is appreciated for her service as well as her artistic talents!
There is still time to get a flu vaccine! Take advantage of one of the
benefits of volunteering: seasonal flu vaccines are available for free to active volunteers through
Employee Health Services (EHS) during their normal business hours. If you need directions to
EHS, we have them in the Volunteer Services office. If you receive a flu shot somewhere else (for
example, from your own physician or at a community clinic), please make sure to let us know. We
must keep track of how many volunteers are vaccinated. Remember, anytime you have a fever or
any flu-like symptoms, stay home and take care of yourself! You may return to volunteering
twenty-four (24) hours after symptoms subside or seven (7) days after symptoms begin,
whichever is longer.
Thank you for updating your TB tests in November! Our thanks to everyone for your
compliance with the change this year, to annual TB testing requirements. Anyone who was unable
to complete his or her TB test in November is required to get it done as soon as possible.
Everyone will be due for his or her next TB update in November 2015.
New year, new parking passes! If you use a parking pass for the Patient & Visitor Deck on the
day you volunteer and have not received your renewal for 2015, be sure to remind us the next
time you come in (or give us a call, if you come in after our office hours).
We are sincerely grateful to all of you for volunteering this year and we wish you a happy, safe,
and healthy holiday season!
Amanda Landes, CAVS
Manager, Volunteer Services
2015 AUXILIARY SALES
March 25-26 - First Uniform - Payroll Deduction – downtown
March 27 - First Uniform – Payroll Deduction- Stony Point
April 9-10th - Masquerade ($5 jewelry and accessories)
June 3 and 4th - Jewelry Cares - Payroll Deduction
Sept. 10-11th - T-Fal Cookware - Payroll Deduction
Oct. 22-23 – Outer Wear - Payroll Deduction
Nov 19th-20th - TBD
NOTE: All sales are held in the Conference Rooms (Main Hospital 1st Floor), except the First
Uniform sale at Stony Point
DONATIONS
Thank you to the following individuals and groups for in-kind donations made through
Volunteer Services to the patients at VCU Medical Center from June – December 2014:
Hunton & Williams
Ann Carter, Make It Happen
Louise Marshall, Make It Happen
Brenda Ley
Petersburg Federated Women’s Club
Commonwealth Women’s Club
The Piecemakers, Church of Christ
Nancy Bryant
SunTrust
Ridge Baptist Church
Amanda Davis
VCU Phi Sigma Pi, Alpha Sigma Chapter
VCU Phi Sigma Pi, Alpha Sigma Chapter
Shawl Ministry, Second Baptist Church
Virginia Schroeder
Presbyterian Women, Tuckahoe Presbyterian
Church
Thank you also to all of the volunteers and
staff who drop off books and magazines
regularly or anonymously!