Woman with 7,000 volunteer hours receives RMH award

ROCKFORD — Marilyn Mitchell, who has given more than 7,000 hours of volunteer time at Rockford Memorial Hospital since the early 1990s, received the hospital auxiliary’s Alma Fringer Award at its 86th annual meeting today.

Mitchell began her volunteer work evenings in the hospital’s gift shop. She has served as a gift buyer and co-chairman of the gift shop committee. She also volunteers in the hospital’s Surgical Family Waiting Area.

The award is named for the woman who founded the auxiliary in 1923 and is given each year to a volunteer who exemplifies the auxiliary’s spirit of caring and commitment to the community.

The auxiliary also presented a $250,000 donation check to help fund a parent resource library in the hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and an instructional DVD for parents of all babies born at the hospital.

Other programs funded in 2009 were a new exhibit at the Discovery Center called “A Rainbow on Your Plate,” focusing on fit families; Healing Harps, a program that brings in a harpist to play soothing music on certain hospital units; and the High Risk Moms Activities Program, which provides programming for pregnant women who may be hospitalized for long periods before delivery.

The donation was a $50,000 increase from 2008 and brought the auxiliary’s total donations to Rockford Health System to more than $6.9 million. The money is raised through donations, memorial gifts, and sales at the auxiliary’s gift shop and thrift shop.