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page 30 york county hospital the volunteers play an important role if you have ever been a patient in newmarkets york county hospital chances are youve been poked at or tested with a gadget purchased in a manner of speaking with candy bars and magazines the machine may well be a tribute to the ingenuity of medical science but the fact that its available to treat the sick is a tribute to the in- dustriousness of the 500 women and teenage girls who comprise the hospitals volunteer auxiliary an unpaid exercise in thoughtfulness the exercise does however pay off for the hospital last year the auxiliary turned over 14000 for the purchase of special equipment the money represented the profit for the year from the little cigaret and candy shop in the main lobby for a tiny operation like that says volunteers coordinator winnifred leach its a tremendous amount of cash the little shop where the newly- organized auxiliary first went to work in 194g together with all the other ventures the volunteers are mixed up in add up to a tremendous amount of work too the shop is open from 10 am to 4 pm and from 7 pm to 9 in the evenings women from the womens institutes the united church womens groups the catholic womens league and other organizations take the candy and cigaret carts around to the patients members of these organizations arent members of the hospital auxiliary but they come to pitch in anyway up until march 1964 when the hospitals east wing was opened the shop and the carts were the only volunteer projects but in the years since the auxiliary has added a beauty salon introduced an admitting escort service which guarantees that all but stretcher cases will have reassuring company from the moment they check in until theyre in bed the more seriously ill or injured arrivals are handled by paramedical personnel an auxiliary member is the custodian of a patients records when the latter is being moved from one part of the hospital to another if a patient has to be taken to a lab for tests or to xray a volunteer does that as well other volunteers deliver the mail or readdress it if the patient has swit ched rooms or gone home they sell stamps and postcards they read letters to patients too sick to do it themselves they run a pediatrics department playroom and keep it stocked with toys and books three days a week they take women patients to the hairdresser and stay with them until theyre finished and if that wasnt enough they even make the smocks and pinafores for the women volunteers and the candystripers the teenage girls whose growing ranks already total 150 these teenagers distribute trays at mealtimes run errands fetch newspapers from the lobby newsstand deliver messages and distribute flowers the candystripers they get their name from the pattern of their pinafores work only one shift from 4 to 6 pm quite a number of them go on to become nurses or nursing assist ants says winnifred leach we have even introduced a cap ping ceremony for them when a candystriper has completed a year of volunteer work she gets a certificate and after the second year a cap she is given a pin by the auxiliary after the third year hospital volunteers have a profound impact on patients many women who have been patients come back at some later time wanting to join the auxiliary says mrs leach we get wives coming in and saying my husband was a patient in here and he wants to know why i dont get in there and do my bit one of the more recently inaugurated programs is a series of tuesday morning tours of the hospital for younger school children we get them as young as nursery school so that when they have to come to the hospital to have their tonsils removed or a broken leg set they arent terrified mrs leach says the exercise is both educational and reassuring and it must work because when they eventually do show up they act as if they own the place for the volunteer auxiliary talk of the future is talk of more programs broader services at present the newmarket business and professional womens club is embarked on organizing a circulating library of books and magazines for the patients at the same time winnifred leach would like to attract more younger women to the cause of working from two to 3- hours a day for the principle of service and while there are no high school boys in the among the l5-to-l8-year- old candystripers other hospitals have them and shed like to see some volunteer to work at york county mrs leach a widow for the past 16 years moved to newmarket four years ago from toronto where she ran a flower shop on yonge st at fairlawn ave for 10 years she still teaches flower arranging oc casionally to adult evening classes son richard 30 is a musician and teacher at willowdales rj lang junior high school daughter nancy 25 is also a musician who teaches at don mills collegiate her oldest son john 35 is a painter who teaches at the sheridan college school of design winnifred leach describes being coordinator of volunteers as a very absorbing sort of job which she applied for and got last january after her predecessor mrs jennie arundel was forced by ill health to give up her responsibilities mrs leach belongs to the newmarket reading club and sings in the trinity united church choir which i will probably go on doing until i get sick of hearing myself singing