GREENFIELD – Susie Broome is celebrating 30 years of volunteer service with Hancock Health.
Serving in the Sue Ann Wortman Cancer Center, Brome has been volunteering with Hancock Health since September of 1993.
With nearly 6,000 recorded hours of service, she has additional hours of volunteering with the Hancock Health Foundation and the hospital gift shop back in the 1970s.
Volunteering has long been a part of life for Broome.
“My mother was a nurse,” she recounts. “I always admired her, so I always had a soft spot in my heart for the hospital, no matter where I was living. It was a logical place to volunteer.”
While raising her three children redirected Broome’s efforts for a bit, volunteering for Hancock Health once again became her focus when her oldest was in high school.
“I had more time. I said to myself, I remember the hospital. I think that would be a good place to spend my time and effort.”
She has volunteered in just about every position during her three-decade tenure at Hancock Health. In addition to her current role at the cancer center, she’s been stationed at the information desk, registration and the emergency department.
She served on the Hancock Health Foundation board of directors for 11 years – one of those as chairman – as well as one term on the Hospital Guild board.
Broome is hard-pressed to name a favorite position she’s held, but one role stands out. She recalls being asked by the then first full-time director of the Hancock Health Foundation, Myra Bleill, to work with the Women Helping Women initiative. Broome is exceptionally proud of the annual gala and recalls their first year when there were roughly 40 people in attendance and they raised around $500.
“Now we will have 400-plus at our gala; we will raise upwards of $120,000 to help fund basic health services for under/uninsured women in Hancock County. It’s really grown.”
The funds raised are used to provide mammograms, ultrasounds, and biopsies, as well as education, navigation and support services.
Broome’s current volunteering in the cancer center has had a significant impact on her. She says this work, in particular, is “really important to me right now… They really need a lot of support. The staff is unbelievable! I can’t speak highly enough of the people up there.”
Broome encourages others to look into volunteering at Hancock Health.
Volunteer hours save the hospital money, she explains, and volunteers are thoroughly trained. This is important so people feel confident in the role they are taking on.
“It’s extremely rewarding to help people navigate the hospital, especially when it might be in difficult times for them,” she added.
While Broome is on the board of several community organizations, she said, “The time I give to Hancock Health is the most personal to me because I am helping individuals receive the care and consideration they need! It doesn’t seem like 30 years. I have certainly enjoyed the people I’ve worked with. The other volunteers are really special people. I treasure those friendships.”
Learn more about volunteering at hancockhealth.org/about/volunteer-opportunities.
