She was 47 when she became a volunteer at the agency’s medical center in 1965 – back when it was still known as Stanislaus County Hospital. The agency had only established its volunteer services program a year earlier. There were about 30 to 40 volunteers at the time.

Now there are more than 150.

Stevens said she began volunteering at the hospital because she liked to work with people who needed her help. Because her six children were all in school, she knew she had the time and felt volunteering would be a good way to get involved with people in a group.

“I wasn’t necessarily looking for a career,” she said. “I just wanted to help.”

But somehow, it did become a career.

In 1968 at the age of 50, Stevens went back to school to become a nurse. Two years later, she became an employee of the hospital, where she worked for the next 20 years. Shortly after she retired as an RN. Stevens went back to being a volunteer.

Today, she is still one of the agency’s core volunteers, working regularly at the family practice clinic and the HSA Gift Shop, which is managed entirely by volunteers.

According to Kathy Phillips, director of HSA’s volunteer services, volunteers put in 20,000 to 23,000 hours of work a year at the agency. There are about 150 core volunteers working for the agency on a regular basis, plus 50 to 60 more during flu season.

“They’re just vital to the agency.” Phillips said.

In addition to manning the gift shop, volunteers do everything from running errands to helping patients and providing administrative support and assistance to the medical staff.

In a three-month period, the volunteers answer about 2,000 questions and run more than 400 different errands from wheelchair transport to anything else that the staff needs, said Phillips.

“It’s a real job,” she said. “And we take it very seriously.”

Volunteers also receive training, as real employees do. Each volunteer goes through a regular interviewing process before he or she is placed.

“With volunteers, they want to be here, so I want to make sure that they’re happy; otherwise, they walk,” said Phillips.

The volunteers receive an hour of orientation before they start. They sign a six-month contract, as well as a confidentiality agreement. Then they tour the facility and go through training with staff in the particular area where they will be working.

The majority of volunteers are over the age of 70, but Phillips believes the faces of volunteers are changing as more and more younger people are using volunteerism as a way to boost their resumes, explore a career or earn academic credit.

This is a great thing, said Shirley Hausner, volunteer president.

“We desperately need more volunteers,” she said.

“We need to have more young people to replace the old,” added Stevens.

“I’m 65, and I’m one of the babies,” laughed Hausner.

The agency received about half of its recruitments through United Way’s volunteer center. The rest mostly come from referrals from other volunteers. In fact, that’s how Hausner first became a volunteer – through someone who worked at the gift shop.

As volunteer president this year, Hausner is challenging all volunteers to bring in more recruits. She will even hand out a prize at the end of the year to the volunteer who brings in the most recruits.

“It gets the competition going and everyone motivated,” said Phillips.

Reprinted by permission of the Turlock Journal.