LIMA, OH (WLIO) - The Lima Memorial Hospital Auxiliary held its annual end-of-the-year meeting on Thursday and made its annual donation to the Lima Memorial Foundation.
Each volunteer has contributed over 20 years of service to the hospital.
This year Lima Memorial is celebrating its 125th anniversary, so they donated $125,000 to the foundation. The Elida High School Choir also came to spread holiday cheer and sang seasonal Christmas music for those in attendance.
The auxiliary also saw its new officers being installed for 2025 and honored the lifetime achievement awards for 5 volunteers. Each volunteer has contributed over 20 years of service to the hospital, and among the 5 of them, they totaled 18,425 hours of volunteer service.
For Lima Memorial CEO & president Mike Swick, these volunteers are the life force of the hospital, and they do it all out of the kindness of their hearts.
For Lima Memorial CEO & president Mike Swick, these volunteers are the life force of the hospital, and they do it all out of the kindness of their hearts.
"Well, the auxiliary is very important to us as a health system; it's kind of one of those things we couldn't do it without the volunteers that come in here every day. I always tell people I would love to clone them because we need more of them, and they come here because they want to; we don't pay them, but they provide volunteer service to us, and we have some lifetime members this year which have been around for a very long time, and we're excited to have them. This being our 125th anniversary, we're very excited as a hospital; we're very excited to have this celebration with them," stated Mike Swick, president & CEO of Lima Memorial Health System.
"Because you can help people. That's the biggest thing: to help them and take them where they're supposed to go, if you know, and just enjoy them because I love to talk to people," commented Darlene Saine, Lima Memorial Auxiliary volunteer and Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.
For Darlene, when her husband passed away in 2003, she wasn't sure what life had in store for her until she found her purpose at Lima Memorial as a volunteer.
Among the 5 of them, they totaled 18,425 hours of volunteer service.
"20 years ago, Viora Frankhauser had 52,000 hours in here, and she lived next door to me. And she said, 'You're not gonna sit at home; you're gonna go volunteer. So that's what she did. In 2004 she brought me over here, and I'm still here," added Saine.
Congratulations to this year's Lifetime Achievement recipients, Karla Donnelly, Martha Fisher, Alberta Jean Mack, Darlene Saine, and Sandra Webb.
