Volunteering is a family affair at St. Joseph’s Auxiliary Hospital

For Kyung and Tea Park, volunteering at St. Joseph’s Auxiliary Hospital, a Covenant Health community in southwest Edmonton, is a family affair. For three hours every Wednesday, the retired couple spend time together at the site supporting the community’s residents. Kyung helps with the morning exercise group, porters residents and serves meals in the lunchroom, while her husband, Tea, supports the senior men’s group.

“It’s meaningful work,” says Kyung, who has been volunteering with Tea at the site for over a year. “I enjoy it.”

“I like to give back to the community somehow,” says Tea. “I worked at what used to be the Edmonton General Hospital about 30 or 40 years ago, so I had experience, and I knew (St. Joseph’s) needed volunteers.”

Kyung and Tea are one of five pairs of family members who volunteer together at St. Joseph’s, along with two other volunteer pairs that include a family member who lives at the centre. Altogether, they are among 112 registered volunteers who contribute to the health and well-being of St. Joseph’s residents. Volunteers assist residents at mealtimes, support the centre’s spiritual care program and help with recreational activities, among other things.

“There's so many different contributions that volunteers bring to the community,” says Daphne Quigley, program manager at St. Joseph’s. Having volunteers at the centre creates more opportunities for residents to build relationships with others. Volunteers also help fill individual resident needs and contribute their energy and desire to make a difference, which helps build a positive community culture.

“In 2018, Covenant Health adopted an approach to care called Living Our Values, which is really about honouring residents, building relationships, making community connections and fostering a supportive living environment,” says Daphne. “Our volunteers exemplify those attributes in such a beautiful, perfect way and help us continue down this journey of resident-centredness.”

Filling residents’ needs

Supporting residents and meeting their needs are important to husband and wife team Ronnie and Shirley Maglalang. Shirley began volunteering at the site in 2016, and Ronnie joined her last spring. They come to St. Joseph’s six days a week for one hour each day to assist residents who live on the Rosewood unit with meals. After volunteering in the dining room for many months, they know what individual residents like and how they prefer to receive help eating.

“(We’re) giving nourishment,” says Ronnie. “As long as the residents have their food and fluids then I think they'll have some nourishment, and (that's) important to me. They need food in the body to give (them) energy.”

Shirley says volunteering at St. Joseph’s has been a “humbling experience” that has taught her patience and helped her become more compassionate toward other people. When she’s there, “nothing else matters,” she says.

The reward is a sense of appreciation from residents. “Some of (the residents) have dementia,” says Shirley. “Some are able to express their gratitude through words, a simple gesture or a smile. What truly counts is to be compassionate and charitable towards our neighbour, as God’s second commandment says to love your neighbour as yourself.”

“We don't get paid volunteering, but I feel like I'm getting paid for doing what I like and then also at the same time helping people,” says Ronnie.

Fostering community

Colleen Charbonneau, a longtime St. Joseph’s resident, and her sister, Marie Ulliac, began volunteering together at the centre earlier this year to give back and show their gratitude for the community.

“(St. Joe’s) has been Colleen’s home for a long time, so to be able to do a little bit of volunteering to contribute to that, we’re extremely grateful,” says Marie.

The sisters volunteer on a special project — creating seasonal displays on a bulletin board for residents and staff to enjoy. In August, they displayed photos of pets who visit the site. They changed the bulletin board in September to pictures of chickens, roosters, goats and other animals from a visiting petting zoo. And in October, they put up pictures of pets wearing Halloween costumes.

Everyone enjoys seeing the pictures, says Colleen. “(Volunteering) makes me happy, and we love it.”

“We enjoy spending the time together, but we also love contributing something to the wider community here,” says Marie. “When we’re volunteering, we are supporting the other residents and we’re also supporting the staff, and all of them in turn support each other.”

Marie also believes the community benefits from having a variety of people for residents to interact with. “There's a lot of young volunteers, which I think is really a wonderful bonus for (residents) who might not have young people in their life. It just adds to the atmosphere,” she says.

Making connections

Father and daughter pair John and Elizabeth Chen have been volunteering at St. Joseph’s since the summer of 2024. Elizabeth, a high school student who’d done volunteer work with the City of Edmonton, was looking for a place to volunteer closer to home, in her community, and John, a retired pension fund manager for public sector employees, wanted to be involved in community service more directly.

Every Wednesday, they are on-site to help the recreation team set up and run recreational activities and help residents participate. Assisting residents is an opportunity to hear their life stories, share experiences and provide companionship, says John. Sometimes they need more attention or help with mobility, but they still want to participate in games and discussions.

“We see residents who always attend recreation events; they look forward to them,” John says.

Elizabeth says making connections with residents has given her a broader perspective on life. “It’s just fun to communicate with them. (I’ve learned) how to relate to and understand their different experiences.”

Supporting quality of life

Brother and sister pair Felix and Fiona Koshy began volunteering at the site a little more than a year ago on the encouragement of their mother, who is a staff member at St. Joseph’s.

The two spend two hours every Thursday assisting the Community Day Support program, which serves seniors with physical, emotional or social challenges who live in the community. Felix, 18, helps with program activities — playing dominoes, cards and other games that help clients improve their memory and cognitive skills — and Fiona, 15, does paperwork in the office.

Working with clients, staff and other volunteers has been a good experience that has taught them about communication, teamwork and co-operation, says Felix.

Like the other volunteers, Felix and Fiona both enjoy talking and visiting with residents and clients, and they see the difference their interactions make.

“We make them laugh, they make us laugh — it’s really awesome,” says Fiona. “Having meaningful talks and being close to them, playing with them, laughing, really adds happy moments, positive moments to their life.”

“I like to listen to their stories, their experiences, so I can be inspired by them,” says Felix. 

All the volunteer pairs at St. Joseph’s would recommend volunteering at the site as well as volunteering with family members.

For Tea, volunteering with his wife, Kyung, has many benefits.

“Volunteering as a couple is a beautiful way to grow together. We ‘re not just spending time. We’re creating shared memories and a stronger relationship.”

“I encourage him, and he encourages me,” says Kyung.