A.V. VOLUNTEER TALLIES 14,000 HOURS.Byline: Bhavna Mistry Daily News Staff Writer When 41-year-old Dorothy Evers signed up as a volunteer at Antelope Valley This article is about the Los Angeles County region. For the census-designated place in Wyoming, see Antelope Valley-Crestview, Wyoming. The Antelope Valley Hospital, she never expected to serve for 40 years. ``I signed up as a life member. Now this is my life,'' said Evers, 81, the last of the 50 charter volunteers who remains active. She vows to continue as long as she can. ``I never dreamed I'd be here this long, but it's great. I feel I'm accomplishing something at my old age.'' Since 1957, Evers has put in more than 14,000 hours of volunteer service working in the hospital gift shop, bringing books and magazines to patients on the library cart, and helping in administration and the Obstetrics obstetrics (ŏbstĕ`trĭks), branch of medicine concerned with the treatment of women during pregnancy, labor, childbirth (see birth), and the time after childbirth. Department. Recently, she has helped mail out survey forms to former patients. Her first volunteer duty was filing medical records. ``I worked two nights a week as my husband watched the kids,'' said Evers, whose family then farmed - raising turkeys and alfalfa alfalfa (ălfăl`fə) or lucern (l  sûn`), perennial leguminous plant (Medicago sativa . The 50 original hospital volunteers were trained by two nurses. Evers remembers those two nurses and their white folded hats imprinted im·print tr.v. im·print·ed, im·print·ing, im·prints 1. To produce (a mark or pattern) on a surface by pressure. 2. To produce a mark on (a surface) by pressure. 3. with the names of their nursing schools. Evers wishes nurses still wore hats showing patients and other workers where the nurses were trained. Most of her volunteering was in the Obstetrics Department. She took photos of newborn newborn /new·born/ (noo´born?) 1. recently born. 2. newborn infant. new·born adj. Very recently born. n. A neonate. babies and made sure mothers and their babies got out of the hospital safely. ``I saw the first quintuplets born at the hospital,'' said Evers. Evers has seen much expansion at the hospital in 40 years. ``We started with a single two-story building,'' said Evers. ``Now we have many buildings, including one with five floors.'' The volunteer staff has also grown - from 50 to more than 700. ``When they started the gift shop, it was nothing more than a hole in the wall,'' said Evers. On days she is not volunteering at at the hospital, Evers often works at home for the hospital patients - knitting knitting, construction of a fabric made of interlocking loops of yarn by means of needles. Knitting, allied in origin to weaving and to the netting and knotting of fishnets and snares, was apparently unknown in Europe before the 15th cent. caps for newborns and lap robes lap robe n. A blanket or fur piece for covering the lap, legs, and feet, as of a passenger in an unheated car or carriage. for patients in wheelchairs. ``They can wrap the baby up in blankets, but his head would still not be covered,'' said Evers. ``So I make them little hats.'' In 40 years, Evers has knitted knit v. knit or knit·ted, knit·ting, knits v.tr. 1. To make (a fabric or garment) by intertwining yarn or thread in a series of connected loops either by hand, with knitting needles, or on a more than 2,000 hats. ``There's a niche for everyone,'' Evers said about hospital volunteering. CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: (color) At home, Dorothy Evers, 81, knits caps for newborns at Antelope Valley Hospital. Jeff Goldwater/Daily News |
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