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.
[toggle title=”Baptist Corporate” state=”open”]- 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.
- (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.