Trillium In The News

The Etobicoke Guardian

Trillium hospital recognizes volunteer for 50 years of service

October 24, 2003

What makes a 50-year old volunteer?

Doing for others, forging friendships and fellowships and making use of your skills- all of which yields a sense of accomplishment to Ruby West.

Trillium Health Centre recently awarded the Etobicoke native its first 50-year volunteer recognition award during a ceremony at Oasis Banquet Hall in Mississauga.

“You build friendships. Volunteering is also a way to demonstrate your skills. Any volunteer can go to the top if you put time into it,” she said in her Queensway (hospital) Site office, dressed in a green Trillium smock, proudly adorned with five volunteer medals.

Every Tuesday, she works in the volunteer office at the Queensway Site, serving as a link with long-serving volunteers, many of whom she recruited years ago. Thursdays she’s at Trillium’s Mississauga site, where she acts as an information liaison between families of ICU patients and the department.

Over the years, West took on various roles at the former Queensway General Hospital as a member of the auxiliary executive, co-ordinator of volunteer services, later becoming the department’s director before retiring, and assuming a position on the hospital’s board of governors.

When the Queensway and Mississauga hospitals merged as Trillium Health Centre, West joined a number of advisory committees, including elder health, community needs and the community advisory panel of the board of directors.
West’s association with Queensway General predates the hospital itself, which opened in 1956.

In the early 1950s, south Etobicoke residents campaigned for a local hospital. St. Joseph’s Health Centre was the closest hospital at the time.

Her Husband Kenneth, who owned West Office Supplied, became involved in the effort, with Ruby taking minutes at the meeting of then-Mimico, New Toronto and Long Branch councils.

When volunteers began canvassing the neighbourhoods, West formed a women’s division of campaign fundraisers. Eventually, 12 were formed in the areas including Alderwood, The Kingsway Humber Bay and Lakeshore.

Kenneth West is one of three founders of Queensway General Hospital, where a wing was named after him in 1977.

Volunteering is in her blood, she says, along with a love of people. She calls the hospital her “second home”. When her husband went over-seas with the Canadian Air Force during the Second World War, West took a nursing aide course at Western University. Her interest in hospitals took root.

“The hospitals were short staffed,” she said of the early 1940s. “Each student was assigned to a hospital near their home, so I picked St. Joe’s. We worked night shifts from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., two nights per week. I never became a nurse, but I came close. I worked my up to the board of governors.”

After 50 years, West says there is no end in sight to her voluntarism.
“For me, it has been an interesting journey. But I’m not ready to get off the bus just yet.”

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