What began as five women looking to make more time for one another is now closer to 200 people doing good for countless others.

In 1964, the five showed up at the county hospital to volunteer. Stanislaus Medical Center no longer exists as a traditional hospital, but volunteers still are an essential part of the clinics and programs operated by the Stanislaus County Health Services Agency.

The five founders are Florence Arnold, Helen Denny, Claire Dunham, Flora Flowers and Dottie Stevens. Arnold, Denny and Stevens still volunteer, and Denny is president of the organization, Health Services Agency Volunteer Services.

Some of today's volunteers are former nurses who reprise their old roles. Most do clerical work.

"Anything that has to do with computers, chances are it's a volunteer," said Health Services Agency volunteer coordinator Kathy Phillips.

As you walk in the main office on Scenic Drive in Modesto, you'll initially see only volunteers -- offering information to your right and selling gifts straight ahead.

Volunteers also write and publish the newsletter, an eight-page pamphlet printed monthly.

In the beginning, the women were as much interested in social contact as charity.

"They called it the Chit-Chat Club," Phillips said. "Their husbands worked while they were at home, and I think it started off as something social. But the intentions then were the same as they are now."

Today, the volunteers are the real unsung heroes of the county health agency. They staff almost every department in the main office on Scenic Drive as well as outlying clinics in Turlock, Oakdale, Hughson and Empire.

They also staff the Medical Arts Building in Modesto and the traveling MOMobile, which provides health care for pregnant women.

"Just in the month of December, we logged 1,676 volunteer hours," said Phillips. "We've always mainly served the county's indigent population, and our volunteers are very important to us."

Phillips says the health agency employs up to 400 people, whose work is enhanced by 100 people volunteering at least weekly.

Another 100 people volunteer once a year, for either the annual Health Fair or Flu Shot Clinic.

The gift shop, managed by Loren Horton, one of the few men in the corps, is the volunteers' biggest project and a fun place to be.

"Would you like to play with a turtle?" Horton, grinning, asked Phillips as she walked in.

Vi Blair, at the cash register, laughed, "We have a lot of fun at our jobs."

All profits from the gift shop go to the health agency.

"A year ago, the gift shop gave $11,000 to upgrade and improve the cafeteria," said Phillips. "And this year, it gave $21,205 for Health Fair equipment as well as a microscope and items for our WIC (Women, infant children) clinics."

President-elect Phillis Berry is typical of the volunteers.

"I retired in 1989 and I went and did all the things I wanted to do. ... And I was bored stiff," said Berry. "I read an ad in the paper that (Stanislaus Medical Center) was looking for volunteers and I've come here ever since."

Using a computer in the Medical Staff Office, Berry keeps track of all the physicians in the clinics. She also works in family practice, two days a week, seven hours a day.

When the hospital ceased operations a little more than a year ago, questions abounded whether the volunteers would stay.

"It seemed like we were going to lose a lot of people," said Berry. "But the need was still here, so most everyone stayed. ... We're just as busy now as we were when this was a hospital."

If you are interested in volunteering, call Phillips at 558-7254.

Reprinted by permission of Modesto Bee