Thank you: UTMC recognizes volunteers

June 2, 2017 | News, UToday
By Staff



For Amanjyot Sidhu, UT Medical Center is like home.

“I didn’t expect to be recognized for helping,” she said. “I always wanted to serve humanity by doing something good for others.”

Patty MacAllister, left, presented the Frances Clinton Service Award to Amanjyot Sidhu, right. Clinton’s sisters, Paulette Smietana, left center, and Mary Anne Nappens, attended the volunteer luncheon.

She recently received the Frances Clinton Service Award. The honor is named for longtime volunteer Clinton who died in 2016; she started volunteering in 1993 and gave 18,000 service hours to UT Medical Center in 2016.

Sidhu was recognized for logging 800 hours volunteering in UTMC’s Family Medicine Department.

“I have always enjoyed volunteering, whether it is in research or in a clinical setting,” she said. “Doing research in the Family Medicine Department not only helped me in gaining professional experience, but it is going to have a lasting, positive impact on the organization.”

Sidhu was one of about 200 who were celebrated at a luncheon during National Volunteer Week recently at the Radisson Hotel on Health Science Campus.

“Our volunteers help make UT Medical Center what it is — a friendly, patient-centered place where everyone is welcome,” Amy Finkbeiner, service excellence operations manager, said. “We couldn’t be the institution we are without our volunteers.”

Those 200 volunteers average approximately 3,000 hours of total service each month and assist 116 departments.

Sue Vancamp, ambulatory staff development and performance improvement director, left, sat with volunteers Joyce Scarbrough, center, and Pat Cheney at the luncheon.

“It’s amazing how much of themselves our volunteers give to UTMC,” Patty MacAllister, support services coordinator in the Service Excellence Department, said.

Volunteers who completed more than 500 service hours in 2016 also were recognized at the event: James Bretz, Xiaohuan Chen, Don Godfrey, Eisuko “Judy” Kudelka, Don Lemle, Yun Liu and Tawfik Obri.

Dan Barbee, chief executive officer of UTMC, and Monecca (Mo) Smith, director of nursing, also spoke at the luncheon and expressed their gratitude to the volunteers for their contributions to the hospital.

For more information about UTMC Volunteer Services, contact MacAllister at patricia.mac2@utoledo.edu or 419.383.6336.

Click to access the login or register cheese