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Hospital Shop And Its Volunteers Are The True Gifts

Tampa Tribune staff photo/Greg Fight

Volunteers Brigitte Johnson, left, and Christine Odom put out fresh candy at Gifts Etc., the hospital gift shop at South Florida Baptist Hospital.

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By PAUL CATALA, Tribune correspondent

Published: October 31, 2007

PLANT CITY - It's the gift shop that gives back.

Since 1971, hundreds of auxiliary volunteers in the South Florida Baptist Hospital have spent hundreds of thousands of hours of service running Gifts Etc., the hospital's gift shop.

Through those years, that volunteerism has generated slightly more than $1 million for hospital equipment and an immeasurable amount of pride and respect from the hospital and community.

The gift shop, in the northeast corner of South Florida Baptist, 301 N. Alexander St., has about 35 of 125 hospital auxiliary members keeping the store stocked and the stock moving.

The gift shop has been part of the hospital since 1953, when it was in the lobby. Three years ago, it was moved and remodeled into a 900-square-foot shop that has become not only a destination for visitors and patients, but also for the community.

That's the way the gift shop volunteer workers and supervisor like it.

'My goal is to get things in here that people from around Plant City would want to buy, and not just those that are here at the hospital,' gift shop supervisor Nancy Clark said. 'We hope people will stop by for birthday gifts or whatever, not just when they're visiting patients.'

Shop visitors can buy toiletry items, cards, books, toy animals, collectible figurines and flowers. For every item sold, South Florida Baptist's equipment gets updated and upgraded.

Clark, who volunteered at the gift shop from 1999 to 2006 before becoming a paid supervisor this year, said that's the shop's bottom line: working for hospital improvement.

During a recent workday, Clark helped Gifts Etc. volunteer clerk Nancy Miller wash the glass display cases. After moving from Ohio to Plant City in 1999, Clark said she began volunteering at the hospital with the Ladies Auxiliary as a way to meet people.

Since then, Clark said she has seen how dedicated the auxiliary and gift shop volunteers are and the good that they have done.

According to hospital records, in 2006, about $50,000 in equipment was paid for with money generated by the auxiliary; $30,000 of that came from gift shop sales. The money was spent on life-sustaining equipment for the emergency room.

The year before, $40,000 was made and also used for emergency care items.

Danita Basham, South Florida Baptist's emergency room nurse manager, said without the auxiliary and gift shop revenue, it wouldn't have been possible to buy some of the hospital equipment.

The emergency room was remodeled, upgraded and renovated in May 2006.

Some of the equipment available because of auxiliary and gift shop donations since 1998 includes fetal monitors, automatic blood pressure cuffs, defibrillators and cardio-respiratory monitors.

'Those funds have enabled us to buy state-of-the-art equipment as we moved into a new, state-of-the-art emergency department,' Basham said.

Since 1971, auxiliary and gift shop volunteers have devoted about 1.6 million hours of service to the hospital. Most volunteers, like Nancy Miller, spend about four hours a week in the gift shop.

A retired Plant City High School family and consumer sciences teacher, Miller said the reward for service is the appreciation from the community. She said she volunteered to 'do something worthwhile' in retirement and she found that at the hospital.

'They always need volunteers, and it's rewarding because you can give back,' she said.

Clark said the Ladies Auxiliary is looking for volunteers for the gift shop and other areas, such as hospital escorts and information desk attendants.

For information, call Gifts Etc. at (813) 757-1230.

IF YOU GO

South Florida Baptist Hospital's Gifts Etc.

ADDRESS: 301 N. Alexander St.

HOURS: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Saturday; 1 to 4:30 p.m. Sunday

CALL: (813) 757-1230

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