St. Luke’s Hospital grateful for a volunteer’s gift giving efforts

St. Luke’s Hospital is grateful for one of their long-time volunteers and her gift giving efforts. For National Volunteer Week, they wanted to highlight one woman’s noble efforts.

Anita Goellner continues to volunteer her time and talents by of sewing pillows, blankets and more for St. Luke’s Hospital patients. As of March, Goellner spent more than 2,600 hours volunteering at the hospital’s gift shop.

“I’ve been at St. Luke’s volunteering for 10 plus years,” Goellner said. “It gives me a sense of being useful, and doing something that’s important. It helps people, and I’m a people person.”

Goellner also said she hopes to calm people who undergo surgery at the hospital. One of the many gifts she sews are for woman undergoing a mastectomy.

“This is a mastectomy pillow. It has a little Velcro here, and people wear it like this,” Goellner said. “It protects the incision when it’s new. I always like to look for real cheery kind of fabric, because that’s a bad thing to go through.”

Every little piece of scrap fabric helps with making a sweet gift for a patient Anita said. She also loves to help kids make sure they feel safe at St. Luke’s.

“Pediatric patients come in, and to make them a little more comfortable with the scary experience they might be going through, we give them some fun pillowcases,” Goellner said. “They can just take them home with them.”

But why does Anita spend her time sewing pillows, bags, and other gifts for people? She said its to bring a little peace and joy to someone in need.

“I love meeting people and helping people, and I guess that’s the main thing, is being able to help somebody.”

For more information on volunteering at St. Luke’s Hospital you can read more here. Also for other stories about volunteering you can read more here.