JULIE BERTRAND/Independent reporter
As Gail Davidson grew older, one thing became clearer: she wanted to move back to Stettler permanently.
Davidson, who was born in Stettler, had moved away when she was five years old with her family to Calgary, where her father had been transferred.
“We’ve always have relatives and friends here. I’ve always come back to visit Stettler and I always wanted to move back here,” said Davidson.
Three summers ago, she got her wish.
She married a Stettler man and left Calgary without turning back. In Stettler, she almost immediately got the position of volunteer coordinator at the Stettler Hospital.
“When I came here and got this volunteer coordination position, it was a seamless move for me,” said Davidson.
She even believes that her present position is her dream job and wouldn’t trade it for anything.
“This is the rest of my life. It’s like a dream come true,” said Davidson
From nursing to coordinating volunteers
Davidson has a career of more than 25 years in health services, which started in her early twenties when she decided to become a nurse.
“I applied to nursing schools in Calgary and that was at the beginning of the eighties and It was extremely hard to get into university or college or anything like that back then because of the recession,” explained Davidson.
“I asked the nursing schools what were the things that I could do to increase my chances of getting in and I was told that becoming employed in health care would help my case.“
She applied and got a job as a secretary. She quickly discovered that nursing was not a job meant for her.
“The nurses deal so much with personal care and I realized that they were special people and I wasn’t sure if I was that special,” said Davidson.
Unsure about doing secretarial work for the rest of her life but unwilling to leave the health care industry, she started looking around for an interesting hospital job.
“I realized that I liked the job of the person who manages volunteers,” said Davidson.
“I actually attended Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton to get a certificate in volunteer management, which is hugely aligned with human resources.”
After graduating Davidson got a job in the finance department of a hospital. She worked that job for 10 years, before deciding she needed a change.
“A couple of volunteer positions came up in Calgary and I got one,” said Davidson.
For the last ten years, she has been working exclusively as a volunteer coordinator.
Volunteering tradition
When Davidson started working at the Stettler Hospital, she was surprised by the numbers of volunteers there.
“People don’t even realize that they’re volunteering most of the time,” said Davidson.
“When you’re helping out with your kid’s sport, that’s considered volunteering. That’s where a lot of people do volunteer now in Stettler.”
What makes Stettler so different from other towns is how community-minded it is.
“It’s too bad everybody can’t experience this,” said Davidson.
At the hospital, she deals with 129 registered volunteers. That’s without counting the high school students who volunteer each week to earn credit and the people who volunteer without coming in contact with patients.
Many of the hospital volunteers also give their free time and attention to other causes. It’s not surprising that of the nominees and winners at the Volunteer Appreciation Tea, a good number of them were hospital volunteers who had been nominated by Davidson.
“I work with people who want to be here. They’re not getting paid,” said Davidson.
“Volunteers get paid back in so many other ways. They’re happy to be here.”
At the hospital, the volunteers are responsible for many things. The most visible thing is the atrium.
“If you look around, there’s hardly one plant that has some brown on it,” said Davidson.
“The plants are tended by 5 volunteers coming in at different times throughout the week.”
Volunteers also operate the small gift shop and all the profits go back to the hospital. Volunteers also visit patients in acute care, in the long-term care unit and in palliative care.
“We have a lot of volunteers that come in with groups and sing,” said Davidson.
“We have the Happy Gang and the Pink Ladies.”
In May, Davidson’s position will increase to four days a week. She’ll be taking coordinating for areas east of Stettler.
“I will be sharing 14 sites with a coordinator from Wetaskiwin,” said Davidson.
“That’s on my agenda for the next year, to become acquainted with the new sites I’ll be taking on.”
When asked what’s on her wish list for hospital volunteering, she is quick to reply that she would like to get more corporate groups.
“If anybody in corporate Stettler wanted to do something for United Way, call me up,” concluded Davidson.”
“We can organize something. It’s really good team building.”