In the healthcare industry, particularly at Geary Community Hospital, it is our call of duty to take care of patients and families to promote their well-being. From the friendly face greeting you at the front door to the nurse taking your vitals or the radiologist tech conducting an exam, our giving and nurturing nature is a major part of what we do. Throughout the holiday season at Geary Community Hospital, we proudly go above and beyond that call of duty and give back to those in need within Junction City and Geary County.
Every fall GCH participates in the United Way’s annual fundraising campaign with dozens of hospital employees purchasing a United Way t-shirt to wear on Mondays to show their support. Funds donated to the United Way directly impact local agencies whose work supports the community with education, health, income stability and safety net services.
Closer to the holidays, GCH conducts its own holiday program, “Operation Care,” a food and warm clothing drive, and also takes part in the Salvation Army’s “Angel Tree – Christmas is for Kids” gift program. Both programs ran through mid-December and they benefit families in need in our community. We were delighted to have the Flint Hills Chapter Harley Owners Group take part this year with major contributions to both programs.
This was the 19th year for “Operation Care” at GCH. Once again, we teamed up with Wheels of HOPE (Helping Other People Eat), a local organization that fights hunger in our community. Throughout the holiday season we collected canned and non-perishable food as well as new and gently used warm clothing. Many GCH employees also choose to donate their own holiday gift from the hospital – a fresh turkey – to help other families have a holiday meal. All of these donations were distributed to the community’s most needy families on Thursday, December 21.
GCH also supported the Salvation Army’s “Angel Tree – Christmas Is For Kids” project. For several weeks, the GCH lobby hosted a Christmas tree decorated with many ornaments – each representing a child in need for Christmas. Employees selected ornaments from the tree and shopped for the child’s requested clothes and gifts. The GCH Patient Access team took the gifts to the Salvation Army who will deliver them to each child’s home prior to Christmas Day. This year our GCH employees and the Flint Hills Chapter Harley Owners Group graciously adopted 50 kids making their holiday even brighter.
This year the Angel Tree program at GCH met children’s wishes with gifts and Operation Care brought barrels of food items which helped create 80 holiday turkey meals to feed hungry families in our community. We hope to grow donations over the years and continue the strong tradition of giving back to help our neighbors in need during the holidays.
Nikki Davies, Director, Marketing and Public Relations