Volunteer Hits Milestone at Putnam Hospital

Putnam Hospital Center volunteer Terry Scrivani recently completed 7,500 hours of volunteer work at the hospital, equaling 1,000 full-time days of service.

Now 86, Scrivani began as a Putnam Hospital Center volunteer in 1995 after retiring from the cashier department at the Foundation for Christian Living in Pawling. Scrivani had had surgery on her foot at Putnam Hospital Center and had such a positive experience, she said, that she wanted to give back to the facility.

“All the people in the Ambulatory Surgery Unit were so good to me that I said, ‘When I retire, I’m going to volunteer here.’ ”

Scrivani started volunteering in the unit and has since moved to the hospital gift shop, where she can be found one to two days per week.

“My heart is in the gift shop,” she said. “I stay mostly because of the people, all the workers and the visitors to the gift shop. Everything goes right back to the hospital, which I think is a great idea.”

Scrivani said she had a goal to reach 7,500 hours of service. A plaque with her name on it for reaching that many hours hangs in the hospital. “It feels wonderful,” she said, adding that she doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon.

“Terry is well-known and well loved by many of our staff and visitors,” said Michelle Piazza, director of volunteer and pastoral care services.

Photo caption: From left: Volunteer Terry Scrivani gets her name on a plaque and accepts flowers from Michelle Piazza, director of volunteer and pastoral services at PHC, for 7,500 hours of service/courtesy PHC