CHC Volunteers Association celebrates silver anniversary

In the summer of 1986, there was a wonderful public announcement on the radio (KCNM and KSAI) calling for a meeting of men and women interested in getting together to form a volunteer group in pursuit of extending help to the soon-to-be-completed Commonwealth Health Center on Lower Navy Hill.

How was this possible and who are the good folks behind this who were calling the meeting? Well, while the transition was taking place from the good old Dr. Jose Torres Hospital in As Terlaje, these wonderful people calling the meeting were the former Dr. Jose T. Villagomez, director of the health services for the Mariana Islands; Gregorio “Greg” Calvo, former hospital administrator (a very tough guy, but a great one) Juanita Dortch (very influential in suggesting to Dr. V that the new hospital will be very beneficial if there is a volunteer group); Angie V. Guerrero, former Medicaid administration; Norma Matthews, Dr. V’s secretary, and last but not least, Rosa T. Palacios, (better known as Acha-Bebe) former public health educator and now retired..

Well, there must have been about 60 people who came to the meeting to listen to the hospital folks and hear their ideas and what they have in mind and when we heard that the hospital will need men and women who will volunteer their time without compensation; we were humbled by their words of wisdom and their ideas were taken seriously by the men and women who came to that meeting 25 years ago.

So in order for the volunteers to start helping at the soon-to-be- completed CHC, the organization had to be a non-profit and also had to be chartered by the Attorney Generals Office. At that time we were a bit inexperienced as to how we were going to go about it. So Angie V. Guerrero suggested to the men and women present at the meeting to contact the Guam Memorial Hospital Volunteer Association and seek their assistance in which they were very helpful in sending us their by-laws for our group to get some ideas and sort of patterned our by laws after theirs. So after we received the GMHVA papers, another meeting was called to elect the new officers, and board of directors and the name of this organization will be called “Commonwealth Health Center Volunteers Association,” which was chartered on Sept. 26, 1986.

The main purpose of our organization is to act as good public relations for the hospital especially in fulfilling the needs of patients, which are served at the health center and to reach out to our community for help as we journey on our fundraising events because the health center will be needing all kinds of extra help. So in reality the hospital volunteers serves and will always stand ready to be the backbone of the hospital.

The volunteers suggested to the hospital administration that we needed to have a small gift shop which will be a continuous fundraiser in order to keep up with the request of our only government hospital serving its patients in the Marianas from Rota, Tinian, Saipan, and the Northern Islands so the hospital administration gave to the volunteers $2,000 as seed money and we started selling a few good things and cold drinks out of a couple of Coleman coolers filled with ice we got from the hospital cafeteria until we were able to get our first big cooler and still going even today. Thank you Lord for all your blessings to all the volunteers past and present who have devoted 100 percent of their time without compensation; serving from their heart, mind and soul along with their families so that others may enjoy the fruits of their labor.

The CHC Volunteers Association would not have accomplished its goals without the support of this great community starting with the smallest person to the big guy, all the people and family who have come and drop a few cents to few dollars in our CHC gift shop and all donations from clothes to pocket books which were sold by the gift shop given by so many families and individuals. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

We want to thank and give appreciation to the entire business community who has supported this great organization and we will be remiss if we do not mention all the available media who made it possible in helping the volunteers to provide the right information to the general public in order that our goals will be made. The volunteers also would like to give a very special appreciation to our Northern Marianas government and staff for all their support to us in the past 25 years. It truly has been a joy and a blessing serving our patients and our community and may god continue to bless this wonderful and committed volunteers, we look forward for another 25 years.

Last but not least, the CHC Volunteers Association would like to let all our people in the Marianas know about our upcoming (annual Thanksgiving raffle baskets) which will take place in November and the volunteers will be selling the tickets out in our community and will also be available in the CHC Volunteers Association gift shop. We are planning a big and wonderful Thanksgiving raffle baskets and the prizes will include airline tickets to different destination. So please give your full support to the volunteers as our project will be to hopefully reach our goal in purchasing the great piece of equipment, better known as the hyperbaric chamber which will truly be beneficial to the patients at our hospital. Also, we never wish for any accidents for divers in our pacific water, specially our tourists who visit our beautiful islands in the Marianas, but should there be such accidents, this equipment will be so helpful. The cost is anywhere from $200,000 to $300,000.

We the CHC Volunteers would like to take this opportunity to give our utmost appreciation, gratitude, love, and respect to three outstanding individuals who are pioneers of this wonderful organization namely, Mrs. Amparo LG Tenorio, Mrs. Rita V. Tenorio, and Mrs. Rieko M. Guerrero who are still very active with our association. We also are grateful to our volunteers who are currently giving of their time, especially in manning our gift shop (which our main source of daily funds), these volunteers come from different nations but decided to be part of this worthy association. With this said perhaps you too would like to help out in one way or another; come visit us at the giftshop and let us know how you would like to help, whether it be through contribution of in-kind gifts for the annual Thanksgiving raffle; or cash donation; or your time as a “snack on wheels” or maybe regular hours at the gift shop. Every organization or association has someone who is responsible in ensuring the daily operation is taken care of, therefore we the association appreciates the efforts of our past presidents namely Mrs. Susana P. Schwarz and Mrs. Kim Prinz!

A great big thank you for taking the time to get to know our association in hopes that you will be kind enough to continue to help us in one way or another! May God continue to help the volunteers advance the good cause in the coming future.

Annie M. Benavente
CHC Volunteers Association