Volunteers Kay Howry and Dottie Latta stand for a portrait in the gift shop at Christus Trinity Mother Frances Hospital - Tyler in Tyler, Texas on Wednesday, May 2, 2018. (Chelsea Purgahn/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

Angel Saleh, the longest tenured volunteer for the Christus Trinity Mother Frances Health System, remembers that when she started volunteers pushed a pink cart from room to room carrying various sundries, toiletries and other items.

They belonged to the Auxiliary, an organization for volunteers at Mother Frances Hospital formed in 1958. The organization, now named the Christus Trinity Mother Frances Health System Volunteers, is marking its 60th anniversary this year.

The organization has grown in the past 60 years from a handful of volunteers at its inception to more than 350 adult volunteers and expanded to include student volunteers and a job shadowing program for 400 to 800 students each month.

When Saleh began volunteering 55 years ago, she abided by her husband’s wishes that she only volunteer between the times she took their children to school in the morning and picked them up in the afternoon and took them home.

Once her children grew up, she began volunteering as long as she wanted. The majority of adult volunteers are on duty for one four-hour shift each week. But Saleh comes in early and stays late on Wednesdays, from 9:45 a.m. to about 3 p.m.

Saleh said the cart that she and other volunteers pushed through the hospital from floor to floor in the early days was loaded with miscellaneous items for sale, such as small floral arrangements, tissues, toothpaste, candy and magazines.

Back then, she said, the hospital had no air conditioning and patient rooms did not have a bathroom, so patients went down a hall to a bathroom.

Saleh has seen modernization and growth not only of the hospital but of the Christus Trinity Mother Frances Health System Volunteers, who serve all of the system’s hospitals and clinics, including ones in Tyler, Jacksonville and Winnsboro.

In place of the cart, volunteers later opened a gift shop at the main hospital that was “tiny” initially, Saleh said. The shop was later enlarged and Saleh volunteered to work in it awhile.

But because she wanted to be closer to patients’ families, she switched to the volunteer desk in the general surgery waiting room on the first floor of Ornelas Tower. It is named the Saleh Foundation Surgery Waiting Room.

Saleh said volunteering “means everything to me. I just like helping people. … I feel like I‘m doing God’s work.”

When families come in the general surgery waiting room, Saleh asks if she can help them. She escorts and shows them where to go. “Some of them are crying and want you to talk to them,” she said. She makes coffee. She calls to see if family members can go back to visit a patient who has had surgery.

“Volunteers are everywhere; we have volunteers all over. They are in our waiting rooms, the gift shop, information desk, emergency room, nursing units, education, human resources, occupational health, intensive care,” said Annette Rios, director of volunteer services.

The volunteers assist the staff and patients, giving their time, talent and experience. “There are so many things our volunteers contribute to us,” Rios said.

Some people who work full time volunteer on nights or weekends. The majority of volunteers come for one four-hour day shift each week. Many are retired professionals, such as administrators, former teachers, doctors and nurses.

Some people volunteer to get out of the house while their children are in school. Some high school or college students want the experience to list on their resume or they need the hours for different programs they will take in college.

Rios estimated there are usually about 45 to 50 volunteers in the Christus Trinity Mother Frances Health System hospitals and clinics each day, not counting job shadowing.

“Volunteers are invaluable because they do so much. You can’t put a price tag or a value on that,” she said.

According to Rios, volunteers do a wide variety of things. They answer the phone, visit patients in their rooms, perform data entry, assemble packets for patients being discharged, put magazines in waiting rooms and stock waiting rooms with coffee and tea and give tours of the hospital.

In the emergency room, they help nurses change linens on beds and go room to room, to see if someone needs a pillow or blanket. They staff the gift shop and do myriad other jobs. For instance, a volunteer may read aloud to stimulate someone in a coma because the patient can hear what is going on even though in a coma.

Volunteers donate hand-made blankets for babies and pediatric patients. They knit little baby caps. They make prayer beads. They may sit and pray with somebody in the waiting room because their loved one is having surgery or comfort a family member who has received bad news.

Volunteers raise money for the hospital, with the gift shop being their biggest fundraiser. Every year they donate $50,000 to the Children’s Miracle Network, $25,000 to women’s and children’s services in East Texas and $5,000 through a foundation to various projects within the health system. They donated $300,000 for the new heart hospital.

All money raised stays within the health system and benefits the community, Rios said.

To become a volunteer, people may apply online or obtain an application form from Rios. They must come in for an interview and provide two references. Background checks are made on applicants ages 17 and older. New volunteers undergo the same orientation as new employees.

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To apply to be a Christus Trinity Mother Frances Health System Volunteer, call 903-531-4435 or go to www.tmfhc.org/donate/volunteers/how-to-apply