For 50 years, Doris Holzworth has poured heart and soul into her volunteer work with the Prince George (UHNBC) Hospital Auxiliary.
From making finger puppets for kids to ease the sting of a hypodermic needle, to making quilts for raffles to raise money for lifesaving hospital equipment, the 85-year-old Holzworth has devoted a half-century of her free time to helping hospital patients find the road to recovery.
She's no doctor, but her expressions of good will have created powerful medicine.
Doris arrived in Prince George in 1946 when her parents moved to a homestead southeast of the city in Willow Cale and two years later married Fred Holzworth. She was working at Mae's Woolen Centre on George Street when a friend asked her to start knitting clothes for the city's army barracks hospital, then located north of the current hospital on a site now occupied by Simon Fraser Lodge.
Formally trained in early childhood education, Holzworth opened her own day care/kindergarten, while raising two kids of her own, Laura and Don. She joined the auxiliary in the early 1960s, when her own children were able to care for themselves.
She served three years as the auxiliary Northeast area representative, covering an area from Bella Coola to Fort Nelson. Having filled every executive position on the local auxiliary, for 45 years she knitted items, spent 26 years on quilting detail, served 15 years in the gift shop, 11 years in the blood donor clinic, eight years in flower service and making up food and snack trays. Her knitted finger puppets were big hits with the kids in the emergency ward and she also made knitted pocket pals for youngsters undergoing chemotherapy treatment. The pediatrics ward was always her favourite part of the hospital.
"We used to have a children's play area and that was so fulfilling because you got right in with the kids and played with them for an hour or two," she said. "You'd hold their hands and read to them or tell stories and some were in cribs or beds but some were able to get up and play little games. When you first came in they were sad-looking or crying, and it was so nice to see them come out with a smile."
Holzworth put on plays for patients, organized the annual hospital ball, and worked the phones at telethons. She found an outlet for her artistic talents as a flower-arranger and helped start the in-hospital flower delivery service in the early '70s. She also made sure each patient received a poinsettia plant at Christmas, donated free of charge from a local supplier.
In the days before the gift shop was built, knitters like Holzworth would bring baby outfits, diapers, nightgowns and blankets, which were placed in a cabinet for sale to patients.
Holzworth helped organize the patient library, took photos of new babies, and helped stock the carts of snacks, books and magazines sold by the candy stripers. She and other volunteers made the rounds visiting patients, delivering reading material, changing the water for their flowers, or even offering to shop for them.
Since the auxiliary's first quilt raffle in 1923 they have raised more than $4.2 million to buy equipment.
The first fundraiser in 1923 collected $500 to buy an X-ray machine. Their more recent fundraising efforts collected $73,000 to pay for a mobile X-ray imager.
Modern hospitals now have paid employees performing duties volunteers used to handle and Holzworth has noticed it is harder to fill auxiliary positions.
"They want to volunteer but the first thing they ask is how much does it pay?" she said. "But we do have so many dedicated volunteers and it makes it such a blessing to be able to work with people and provide what we can for them.
On Feb. 15, just a week after her 50 years of service was celebrated at the hospital auxiliary's annual general meeting, Holzworth underwent heart surgery in Vancouver to repair an aortic valve. The operation was a success and she's recovering at home awaiting knee surgery, showing no signs she's ready to give up her volunteer knitting and quilting activities any time soon.
