LONNY GOLDSMITH
Staff Writer

I

n 19 years of volunteering at
Sinai Hospital, Bertha Fischer
has missed only three Tuesdays
of work.
When Sinai closes this summer,
Fischer isn't planning to miss any
more days when she starts volunteer-
ing at Sinai-Grace Hospital. "I'll keep
working as long as the [Sinai] Guild is
there," she said.
According to Elsa Silverman, that
could be a long time. "The adminis-
tration has been supportive and
earnestly wants us," said Silverman,
Sinai's director of volunteer services.
"We brought in a lot of money."
The Guild has a three-fold mission:
patient service, which includes the
delivering of mail and bringing a book
and gift cart to patients; community
outreach, which offers an educational

Years Of Loyalty

JVS volunteers at Sinai say they'll help at Sinai-Grace.

medical program for New Americans;
and fund-raising for programs and
equipment at the hospital.
Senior citizens have been volunteer-
ing with the Guild at Sinai through
the Jewish Vocational Service Senior
Service Corps for 21 years. The Senior
Service Corps provides 12 of the hun-
dreds of Guild volunteers.
"Things might have to change a lit-
tle," when the operation moves a few
blocks away to Grace Hospital. But,
said Fischer, "Change is good and you
have to go along with it. You'll be in
trouble if you don't go with the flow."
Last Tuesday provided a glimpse of
how the Guild helps the hospital.
For five volunteers from JVS, the day
began around 9 a.m. when a special bus,
underwritten by Sinai's owner, the
Detroit Medical Center, picked them up
at their homes in Oak Park and
Southfield and delivered them to the
hospital on West Outer Drive by 10.
Fischer and co-volunteer Milt Siegel
spent the first hour waiting for a deliv-
ery of supplies they would later carry
around to operating rooms.
But Marion Rutter came into the

3/5
1999

12 Detroit Jewish News

Guild office and attacked a big stack
of mail she had to deliver. Ann Siegel
and Sylvia Foxman stuffed envelopes
with a survey to be sent out to hospi-
tal patients.
Later, walking her route, Rutter
maneuvered the hallways like a sea-
soned veteran. "Everyone's been very
accommodating and helpful," she said.
"I still get mixed up with where the
intensive care units are." Rutter, a five-
year volunteer at Sinai, prefers patient
contact to being in the Guild office.
The patients thank me so heartily
for the mail as if I were responsible,"
she said. "I figure if I don't deliver,
they won't get their mail."
The service corps originally sent vol-
unteers to the Jewish Community
Center of Metropolitan Detroit, the
Holocaust Memorial Center, Hillel
Day School of Metropolitan Detroit
and Fresh Air Society, in addition to
Sinai. But when JVS asked the other
agencies to help pay for transporta-
tion, only Sinai agreed. "We were able
to get some funding from The Jewish
Fund," said Fran Cook, JVS' manager
of services to the elderly.

Although the volunteers pay some-
thing, on a sliding scale, for the trans-
portation, "We can't expect the volun-
teers to pay the cost of running the
program," Cook said.
Foxman, a resident of Prentis
Apartments and Services in Oak Park,
says one of the rewards is social:
"Being with people to talk to is a big
priority for me."
Siegel, who folds bags with Fischer
for crash carts in the operating rooms,
said, "It's been rewarding. It's not a
very demanding job, but it needs to be
done.
Fischer trained three blind volun-
teers, including her husband Sam, to
fold the bags, giving them a way to
help out at the hospital.
With more than 6,500 hours logged
as a volunteer, Fischer says the JVS
regulars have become like a family.
When we get on the bus to come
here and see someone isn't here, we
ask where they are," she said.
Half of the group wasn't at Sinai on
Tuesday because of illness or vacation,
but, said Fischer, Its just nice to be
together to talk." Fl

Clockwise from top:
Bertha Fischerpushes her cart of
surgical room bags to be folded,
with volunteer Milt Siegel in tow.

Marion Rutter delivers mail to
Martin Klaridge.

Sinai volunteer Sylvia Foxman
at worle.

Ann Siegel stuffs an envelope.