Editor:

After a lengthy career in business I desired a change. I felt a deep-seated desire to focus my remaining working years focused on the benefit of people rather than manufacturing a product.

Fate smiled on me and I am now employed at Centra Southside Community Hospital. Every day I am given the opportunity to be of help to a patient or family member. I can say that the more effort I put toward being the best I can be at work, the better I feel about myself.

Part of my responsibility at Centra Southside Community Hospital is working with our volunteers and let me tell you “ours” are the best. My reason for this letter to the editor is to ask local residents to consider volunteering at our hospital.

We have an immediate need for volunteers. It is not hard to become a volunteer. Here is how it works.

You fill out an application, see our health nurse, we run a background check, and you complete a short orientation. That is it. We do require a minimum commitment of 40 hours per year.

I asked one of our volunteers today why he volunteers. He has done so for 15 years. His response? “It is the desire to help people. I do not want pay and I do not want recognition.”

So, you ask where is the payback for this volunteer? It is in the good feeling he gets for helping others in a selfless way. My Rotary club’s motto is “Service Above Self,” which is what volunteering is all about.

Volunteers are important, as it allows hospital staff to stay at their posts where they are needed. As an example, volunteers wheel discharged patients out of the hospital, allowimg nurses to continue their work on the floor.

We need volunteers. Now. Please give me a call at (434) 315-2831. You will never regret it…

Dan Dwyer

Volunteer Coordinator

Centra Southside Community Hospital