Vail Valley Medical Center honors top volunteer
ALL |
VAIL, Colorado – Since his retirement in 2004, Dick Woodrow has volunteered in the neighborhood of 500 to 600 hours annually – more than 2,500 total – at Vail Valley Medical Center. He has also served the last two years as the president of the medical center’s Volunteer Corps.
The hospital honored Woodrow’s service at a recent gathering.
Woodrow, a former president and chief operating officer of Finisar, a public company based in Silicon Valley, Calif., that specializes in fiberoptic subsystems, can now be found volunteering his time at the medical center.
“Retirement didn’t sit well with me,” Woodrow said. “I always knew that I wanted to give back, and this is the place that I choose to do that. The hospital’s Volunteer Corps is the best volunteer experience in our community.”
In addition to helping write the Volunteer Corps’ mission and vision statements, he has served as treasurer and the corps’ first male president. Woodrow is also greatly responsible for the success of the VVMC fashion show, is licensed as their raffle coordinator and an emergency room volunteer.
Support Local Journalism
“Our Volunteer Corps is made up of very talented people,” says Woodrow. “I’m constantly reminded of the expertise and knowledge of my colleagues, our board of directors and Amanda Visosky, VVMC’s manager of volunteer services. Through their ideas, implementation processes and general management of our resources, VVMC’s Volunteer Corps has become very successful and an important contributor to the patient experience.”
Through the Volunteer Corps, the medical center raises approximately $50,000 annually for the nonprofit hospital. On average, the corps donates 12,000 hours each year.
“If you consider each hour at an hourly employee rate of $20, you come up with about a quarter of a million dollars a year,” Woodrow said. “That’s a significant amount of person power that doesn’t come off the hospital’s bottom line.”
Woodrow has earned the respect of his colleagues in the volunteer corps, patients, hospital staff, physicians and administrators.
“Dick always gives 150 percent,” Visosky said. “He recently installed a sophisticated computer system in our gift shop to help with inventory and serve as our new cash register; then he took on the task of teaching everyone to use it. As president, he brought a tremendous sense of balance and forethought to the corps. Dick inspired us to be better, give more and have a lot fun.”
VVMC’s new president of the volunteer corps is Susan Balcomb, an Eagle-based certified public accountant.
“On behalf of all of us at VVMC I’d like to personally thank Dick and all of our volunteers,” said Doris Kirchner, president and CEO of the medical center. “Their gifts of countless hours of support are invaluable to this organization, our patients, and our community.”
