Despite giving their time in a place most people try to avoid, volunteers who staff the Penticton Regional Hospital gift shop find plenty of joy in their work, which has generated a massive financial windfall for the facility.
June Revell-Quevillon, who manages the shop, said she knows her customers donāt usually want to be there, so the sales staff tries to offer a bit of kindness with every purchase.
āSometimes that volunteer behind the desk is the only sort of contact some people have, and itās a smile. Some patients talk to you a lot because they have no one to speak to.ā
And āitās happy time sometimes,ā she added. āThere are new babies, so dads are coming in all excited. So I think itās the interaction more than anything that keeps us going.ā
Revell-Quevillon, who owned and operated Juneās Fashions and Gifts in downtown Penticton before closing it to retire two years ago, now oversees a long-term volunteer staff of 30 and has been giving her own time as the manager for 18 years.
āI started as a volunteer (clerk). Loved it. Then the former manager decided she wanted to retire, and I had a background in retail, so she said, āAre you interested?ā and I said, āSure!āā
The gift shop stocks everything from magazines and flowers to frozen meals, clothing and used books.
Itās open seven days a week āĀ āWeāre pretty well never closed, except for Christmas Dayā ā with four volunteer shifts daily, each between three and four hours, Revell-Quevillon explained.
Her helpers are extremely dedicated to the cause.
āIt just wouldnāt exist without them, because they take ownership of the shop like itās their own,ā she said.
Profits from store sales are passed on to the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation, which supplies equipment to the hospital to improve patient care and comfort.
Revell-Quevillon said the shop has raised $500,000 for the foundation since 1997, although it has been in business and donating in some form since 1944, when it began operating the original hospital at what is now the Haven Hill Retirement Centre.
āThey have helped to buy hundreds of pieces of equipment for this hospital,ā said Janice Perrino, the foundationās executive director.
āEverything small, everything big, theyāve been there.
āEvery campaign that weāve ever done, theyāve been a part of it.ā
Perrino said all of the gift shopās volunteers are appreciated by hospital staff and patients, and Revell-Quevillon āhas just been a major force.
āIām so proud of her,ā said Perrino.
Like every other group that works at the hospital, the shopās volunteers are also eagerly awaiting word about funding for a proposed $300-million ambulatory care tower, where they expect to eventually be relocated.
āThis (hospital) staff here deserve it. They work so hard,ā said Revell-Quevillon.
āWe have a wonderful hospital, but it would be nice to have something happen soon.ā
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