Holidays offer more chances for Baptist team members to give

Baptist entities typically answer the call to help the less fortunate during the holidays, and this year was no different. Read on to see how team members united to care for their communities during this season of giving.

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  • Baptist team members donated enough warm clothing and toiletries to fill 300 backpacks for homeless Baptist Operation Outreach patients. They also donated enough money for the community relations department to buy lotion, Bibles, water, blankets and coats. Below left, 44 team members volunteered to fill the backpacks.
  • Below right, the system nursing department adopted a family from the Kemmons Wilson Family Center for Good Grief, Baptist’s bereavement facility located next to the Baptist Reynolds Hospice House. Shelia Fleming, director of clinical practice, organized the donation to make someone else’s Christmas a little brighter. The group bought items from each child’s Christmas list, along with other things they thought would help make Christmas morning special for the family. The team wrapped the gifts together, enjoying snacks and fellowship. “Our team gained more than we gave,” Shelia said. “God has blessed our group by providing us this opportunity to serve.”
  • The system perioperative team heard about the nursing department’s donation and gave money for the Baptist Reynolds Hospice House staff to purchase Kroger gift cards for hospice families.
[/toggle] [toggle title=”Baptist Union City” state=”close”] Below left, team members donated 200 Christmas presents to children in area Head Start programs, and those gifts were on display during the Baptist Union City Christmas reception for staff, physicians and volunteers. Below right, Teresa Vinson, director of quality at Baptist Union City, discussed holiday decorating and baking/cooking tips during the reception.

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  • (First and third photos below) The hospital’s first ever Employee Chili Cook-off raised $310 for the Lowndes County Council on Aging’s Home Delivered Meals Program. Participants paid $10 to enter their best crockpot of chili, and team members paid $5 to sample each entry and vote for the best. Sherry Elmore, RN, director of Cardiac Services, won the contest and a $50 Walmart gift certificate, which she donated back to the Home Delivered Meals program.
  • Departments and individuals designed and entered holiday wreaths, which were judged, then auctioned off during Baptist Golden Triangle’s annual Holiday Wreath Contest and Silent Auction. 4PT (second photo below) won first place and a pizza party. Second place winners – the Education Department (fourth photo below) – also enjoyed pizza, and the hospitals’ Auxiliary earned Krispy Kreme donuts for winning third place (fifth photo below). After being judged, the wreaths were auctioned off, raising $950 for the Salvation Army Toy Drive.
  • The Women’s Services team hosted a Holiday Open House to educate parents on how to care for their newborns (seventh photo below).
  • Baptist Golden Triangle’s Auxiliary held its annual Christmas Luncheon for all hospital volunteers, including Auxiliary members, Hospice volunteers and volunteer chaplains, to thank them for their service throughout the year and to wish them a Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year (sixth photo below). All volunteers received a Walmart gift card from the hospital.
[/toggle] [toggle title=”Baptist DeSoto” state=”close”] Hospital team members adopted 15 children for Christmas from the Department of Human Services’ Foster Child program. Other departments donated personal care items to Heartland Hands Food Pantry. Team members celebrated in the lobby with milk and cookies and heard stories from both organizations about the people whose holidays will be brighter thanks to their generosity.

[/toggle] [toggle title=”NEA Baptist” state=”close”] The hospital hosted its annual Christmas Tree Lighting and started a new program called Lights of Love, which allowed team members and the community to purchase a luminary in honor or memory of a loved one. Proceeds benefited the NEA Baptist Charitable Foundation. NEA Baptist also sponsored a local production of The Nutcracker Ballet through the Jonesboro Foundation of Arts, and patients got a special visit from Santa, who delivered goodies.

[/toggle] [toggle title=”Baptist Huntingdon” state=”close”] Baptist Huntingdon thanked its team members with its annual Employee Christmas Luncheon, where team members enjoyed fun, fellowship and barbecue (second, third and fourth photos below). The hospital also held its annual wreath contest. The Emergency Department won first place (fifth photo below), the Lab took second place, Environmental Services placed third and won the Employee’s Choice award (first photo below), Med/Surg came in fourth and Rehab won fifth place. (The sixth photo below features all the wreath contest winners.)

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