After 16,000 Volunteer Hours, Cohen Still Going Strong
Shirley Cohen Volunteer Memorial Regional Hospital
Getting Started
Memorial Healthcare System offers a variety of positions and special projects that will appeal to anyone who wants to volunteer time to help others.
Some positions require regular hours, but others are flexible enough to accommodate people whose schedules will not allow them to vol- unteer a set number of hours. Some duties can even be performed by people who have limited mobility or are homebound.
January 2003 — After they made Shirley Cohen's pin, they broke the mold. She wears it proudly on her pink lapel, where the glittering pin proclaims that Shirley has worked an astonishing 16,000 hours during her 31 years as a volunteer at Memorial Regional Hospital. That's the equivalent of 667 days working around the clock or 2,000 eight-hour shifts.
"I feel like I'm doing good for the hospital and for myself," says Shirley, the hospital's longest-serving volunteer. "You've got to keep busy. You can't stay home and watch TV all the time."
Shirley holds a degree in accounting from St. John's University. The only time she has been paid to work was a brief period in the payroll department of a New York City telephone company while her husband was in the military. The couple moved to Hollywood in 1970, and she started volunteering at Memorial in October the next year.
Shirley's duties are much the same now as they were then: four-hour afternoon shifts in the gift shop. "I started in the gift shop and never got promoted," she says, laughing. "But I have no complaints. I like to sell things and I like to talk to people, and Memorial has always been good to me."
Here are just a few of the many opportunities available at our facilities:
- Admitting
- Child Care
- Clerical
- Environmental Services
- Fitness & Rehabilitation Centers
- Flower Delivery
- Food Service
- Fundraising
- Gift Shop
- Lobby Greeters & Escorts
- Mail Room
- Reception Desk
For additional information, please call (954) 265-5940 or (954) 844-7140.