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Trinity employees make a difference

To the editor:

The following message appeared in my inbox and I thought it was worth sharing. I want to also recognize and thank all of the Trinity Medical Center employees for their caring spirit and the gift of giving that they deliver every day. A special thanks to Carol “Grandma” Bonar, who always motivates us to give more through her own spirit of giving:

Trinity employees … you all are a great example of what Christmas is all about. All of you should be proud of everything you did for our community, not only in December but all through the year.

We adopted 70 children this year through the Urban Mission – this is a record. We also helped six families of our own. Our docks looked like a small Wal-Mart warehouse on the day of the pickup. Some of these children wished for bikes and our medical staff donated $500 so we could purchase 12 bikes. I wish I could have seen their faces on Christmas morning.

The Trinity E.C.H.O. Fund donated $5,768 in December which included covering the costs to mail boxes to our soldiers, Thanksgiving baskets from the Urban Mission, teen stockings, donations to all the local food banks, gifts for skilled care patients, support for Purple Palooza, gifts to the Red Cross and gift card purchases for the RSVP volunteer luncheon. But look at this total figure – the E.C.H.O. Fund donated $31,779 to the community in 2013.

The mission committee wanted to give some little gift to our patients on Christmas day, so we decided we would decorate little foam trees. We needed some volunteers, and I walked into the cafeteria conference room at 5 p.m. and I had more than 15 elves sitting there ready to do this project.

The next evening, a group of kids came from Catholic Central and packed the candy bags and wrapped the gifts for the Trinity children’s party. These kids helped serve the food the next day at the party. The kids had a great time, and by looking at the pictures, our employees have the cutest kids in town.

Just when we thought we were all done and ready to take a break, an employee came to me with a very sad story about a family that needed help. The father had a terminal illness and no money for gifts for the family’s three children. I thought just how much can we ask of these Trinity employees, but I put out a message at about 7:30 a.m. and by 9 a.m. had more than $400 and by 11 a.m. had more than $900. I just couldn’t believe it. We had some money left over and another call came in about helping another family and we were able to help this family.

So stop and give yourself a pat on the back – you all deserve it. No company in this valley has such caring employees as Trinity. I wish all of you and your family a happy and healthy 2014. Grandma Bonar

Fred B. Brower

President and CEO

Trinity Health System

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