Junior Service League Hosts speaker from Sacred Heart Hospital

Sharon Abele with Sacred Heart Hospital on the Emerald Coast spoke to the Junior Service League at their January meeting.  As the Senior Spirit and Volunteer Service manager for the Emerald Coast hospital, Ms. Abele spoke about the importance of volunteers at Sacred Heart.  The Junior Service League of Port St. Joe has a special relationship with Sacred Heart, having donated $10,000 to the new Sacred Heart Hospital on the Gulf. 

Ms. Abele recruited volunteers among the Junior Service League membership.  Volunteerism is at the heart of the non-profit hospital.  A Sacred Heart volunteer is the first person any visitor at the hospital sees.  Volunteers at the Welcome Desk accompany patients to a seat, and volunteers keep family members updated on patients’ well-being.  It is the volunteers Ms Abele said, who make the hospital special, making “it a true community hospital.” 

Currently the Sacred Heart Hospital on the Gulf has received 65 volunteer applications, but Ms Abele has a goal of one hundred volunteers by the time the hospital opens in March.  Volunteers will serve in one of four areas: Welcome Desk, Emergency Room, Gift Shop or Floater.  Regular volunteers will work a weekly four hour shift, while substitutes will fill in when a regular volunteer is unable to work.  Anyone wanting a more flexible schedule may want to apply to be a substitute volunteer. 

The volunteer program at Sacred Heart on the Emerald Coast, which opened in 2003, has more than 250 volunteers in twenty-four areas of the hospital.  For many of those volunteers it has become a lasting commitment.  Of the Walton County volunteers, nearly a hundred have continuously donated their time since the hospital opened seven years ago. 

Those interested in learning more about volunteering with the Sacred Heart on the Gulf may contact Junior Service League President, Kim McFarland at (850) 227-6474 or Sharon Abele at (850) 278-3081.

The Junior Service League of Port St. Joe is a non-profit organization of women whose goal is to serve the children of Gulf County.  In addition to the $10,000 donation to Sacred Heart Hospital, the League also donates school supplies and winter clothes for elementary students, hosts scholarships and the Junior Miss Program for high school seniors, and sponsors a mentoring program for middle school girls.