Hospital staff prepares presents for patients
Patients staying at the hospital may not get to open their presents under the Christmas tree Dec. 25, but health care staff members at Butler Memorial Hospital have them covered.
Melissa Conklin, department secretary of medical surgical/telemetry, said she and the department’s director, Bill Hildebrandt, have collected and wrapped at least 150 gifts which will be given to patients in the hospital on Christmas morning. According to Conklin, the initiative gained traction within her staff and beyond.
“We put a box on each floor — 5 Main, 6 Main, 7 Tower and 6 Tower — and collected the gifts from there and nurses and staff donated,” Conklin said. “I believe some family of staff members donated towards it too.”
Hildebrandt said his department previously organized a gift-giving campaign in 2020, when staff members bought presents for patients who were in his unit for an extended period of time. He and Conklin decided to start another gift campaign around Thanksgiving this year to bring some joy to people stuck in the hospital for the holidays.
“(They were) extremely appreciative back then, and I think they will be this year as well,” Hildebrandt said of patients who received gifts during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We’re hoping, depending on census, to have enough to give all of the patients — maternity, ICU, everybody. But if we don’t, we will be focusing on my four units, which is a good chunk of the patients in the hospital.”
Hildebrandt said the people who left gifts were basically anonymous, because most were just placed in boxes set around his hospital units. However, Conklin said workers around the hospital were eager to bring in gifts to wrap up, which included items that would make good presents for just about anyone.
“Everybody seemed optimistic about it and wanted to help,” Conklin said. “We got blankets, then we have word searches, Sudoku, we got hand creams, cookies, candies … It’s for everybody.”
Hildebrandt said he plans to at least stop into Butler Memorial Hospital Christmas morning to help distribute gifts to patients, so he can experience the surprise and joy the presents bring to people.
He also said there is potential to make this holiday gift drive a recurring initiative at Butler Memorial Hospital, seeing how eager his staff was to participate in it.
“On the poster I put our ‘First annual,’” Hildebrandt said. “So hoping it will be an ongoing thing.”
