By Lynne Turner
MOUNT FOREST – Verna Batenchuk, 91, and her late husband Bill moved to Mount Forest many years ago, partially because the community had a hospital.
The one in their hometown of Shelburne had closed.
Since then she has provided countless volunteer hours at Mount Forest’s Louise Marshall Hospital.
“We came here, stopped for lunch and everyone was so friendly,” Batenchuk recalled. “By four o’clock the next day we had two houses and we were moving to Mount Forest. And then we joined things.”
Batenchuk said her husband would bring home the newspaper and they would look for opportunities to meet people in their new community.
They joined the Young at Heart seniors group and began bowling and lawn bowling – and all the people they met seemed to volunteer in one capacity or another.
“I started volunteering at the hospital and with the Louise Marshall Hospital Auxiliary nearly 32 years ago and I’ve loved every minute of it,” said Batenchuk from the condo she has lived in since her husband’s death.
“I wanted to do something with my time and the hospital seemed like the best place to go because of my training.”
Batenchuk worked at a nursing home in Shelburne for many years and was always impressed with the volunteers who came in to visit, help feed or entertain residents.
She began volunteering at Louise Marshall Hospital at mealtimes, feeding senior patients, taking trays back to the kitchen and helping in any way she could. She also worked in the auxiliary-run gift shop at the hospital.
It was there that then-hospital administrator Terry Stoughton asked Batenchuk if she would sit on the hospital’s board of directors as a community representative. She took up the challenge.
“Being on the board, I met the greatest people,” Batenchuk said.
Nearly 20 years ago she and fellow auxiliary member Shirley Martin assumed the newly created of role of joint volunteer coordinators at the hospital.
They became close friends as they sought and coordinated volunteers to help run various hospital clinics, help with the flow of hospital traffic, help at meal times and perform other tasks within the hospital.
Until recently Batenchuk was still in charge of coordinating volunteers at the weekly clinic run by urologist Dr. Tom Morris at the hospital. She even volunteered for eight-hour days at the clinic herself.
Morris has recently retired and his son Christopher “Topher” Morris now sees Mount Forest patients.
“It was a good time for me to back off,” Batenchuk said. “But I had five or six of the greatest volunteers the whole time.”
She also remembered the day she got a telephone call seeking help in the hospital’s physiotherapy department.
“I found four women and they’ve been volunteering in that department ever since,” Batenchuk said.
“As soon as you start volunteering, your phone starts to ring.”
Liz Goodall has taken over as volunteer coordinator since Batenchuk’s retirement from the volunteer position.
Batenchuk was on the steering committee to bring hospice to Mount Forest.
“I was with hospice since day one. It was a six-year fight to get a palliative care room at the hospital,” she recalled. “And then we got a family visitor’s room beside it.”
Batenchuk said she was one of numerous volunteers to take classes on what to do while sitting with palliative care patients, which became another mainstay of her volunteerism at the hospital.
“I enjoyed every minute of that because it felt like we were doing something that was a benefit to people in the community,” she said.
Batenchuk was the auxiliary’s representative to the North Wellington Health Care Foundation’s board of directors for many years.
For several years she co-chaired the foundation’s annual Festival of Lights fundraiser at Christmas time.
“The two of us, over eight years, made the hospital thousands of dollars by selling Christmas lights,” she said. The bulbs were put on a tree at the hospital and lit during a special evening each year.
Batenchuk remains an active member of the Louise Marshall Hospital Auxiliary, attending monthly meetings and helping at events, including the group’s two major fundraisers: a spring soup and sandwich luncheon and a fall bazaar.
“When raising a family and working, there was no time to volunteer,” Batenchuk said, adding she always wanted to join a hospital auxiliary.
“It was something I looked forward to doing when I retired,” she said.
Batenchuk is quick to point out she is just one volunteer among many and that the Louise Marshall Hospital Auxiliary has longer serving members.
“There are many, many others who have done as much or more than I have, but they just haven’t stuck around as long as I have. I’m 91 and I brag about it,” she said.
“I’ve enjoyed every minute of it, but it’s not about me. It’s about the people I worked with, the faithful volunteers.”
Hospital auxiliary president Penny Renken agrees all members are dedicated and some have been members longer than Batenchuk.
Audrey Donald, who passed away just a few weeks ago, had recently received a certificate of recognition for over 65 years as an auxiliary member.
However, Renken noted, two things are very evident about Batenchuk.
“Firstly, she is very dedicated to the auxiliary and its continuance as a viable extension of the hospital,” Renken said.
“The many positions that she has held over the years, as a member, attest to this.
“And, secondly, is her support of others, such as myself, which is very appreciated. She is a wealth of knowledge.”
