AUGUSTA — Barbara Belanger was honored recently with the Volunteer of the Year award at The Governor’s Award for Service and Volunteerism ceremony in the Hall of Flags at the State Capitol.
“I couldn’t do it all by myself,” Belanger said. “I’m being honored, but a part of it is the past and present volunteers who have helped me achieve this goal.”
Belanger has been volunteering at Rumford Hospital for the past 42 years, working over 500 hours each year. She is an organizer of more than 75 other volunteers, some of whom visit patients in their rooms to make sure they are doing well. She is also president of the Hospital Auxiliary, overseeing events such as the hospital yard sale.
She also coordinates third-grade class visits, organizes blood drives and spends hours each year supporting The Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing by hosting a beverage stand during the Dempsey Challenge.
Her reason for doing volunteer work is something she said was instilled in her as a child, especially by watching her mother volunteer.
“For the giver and the receiver both, it empowers you,” she said. She believes that in a world that’s unsettling, donating time does wonders.
“I’ve been able to do it and enjoy doing it,” she said.
Belanger said she’s been fortunate to be able to do her volunteer work with the help of her children and her husband, Laurier Belanger. Her husband has logged in over 8,000 volunteer hours for the hospital.
She also serves on two hospital boards, as well as on the River Valley Chamber of Commerce board of directors. Central Maine Medical Center’s Director of Volunteer Services’ Susan Hedrich nominated her for the Maine Volunteer of the Year award and called her “an invaluable leader, friend and organizer of 75-plus hospital volunteers.”
Belanger said she “didn’t suddenly have some sort of epiphany” to become so involved in hospital volunteer work, but it was a natural progression, starting with seeing her mother volunteer and then doing the same herself as an adult by helping in her children’s classrooms or as a booster for their high school sports teams.
Before she had children, she worked as a customer service manager — but still volunteered during that time.
Belanger said her good organizational skills have made it easy for her to do much of her volunteer work, but she thinks that “people would be pleasantly surprised if they did do some volunteering.”
“It’s good for you,” she said.
The volunteer program at Rumford Hospital is an exciting program for volunteers because it’s very diverse, she said.
“We try and work with each volunteer to find them a niche, something that they’re comfortable in doing,” she said. “Each volunteer and the job that they do is needed and important,” she said, adding that their work helps the hospital run smoothly and frees up time for hospital staff.
To find out more about volunteer opportunities at Rumford Hospital or Central Maine Medical Center, call 795-2472 or 369-1143 to speak with Susan Hedrich.
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