Hollister
– Ed Kutz believes laughter, conversation and camaraderie are
the key to getting your mind off pain.
Hollister – Ed Kutz believes laughter, conversation and camaraderie are the key to getting your mind off pain.
A volunteer with Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital’s Auxiliary program, Kutz helps out at the hospital not only to be or service to the patients and doctors, but to aid in his own healing as well.
Kutz, 84, has been volunteering as an escort with the hospital for a little over a year – putting in more than 450 hours, not including the time he spends visiting with patients on his days off.
There are currently about 120 volunteers who help with the Auxiliary program performing various duties. Volunteers work in the gift shop, greet patients, or, like Kutz, work as escorts.
As an escort, Kutz transfers patients around the hospital and runs lab specimens and paperwork between various rooms. But primarily, Kutz spends his time talking with the patients: Keeping them company and keeping their spirits up.
Kutz first started coming to the hospital as a way to occupy his time and get his mind off the death of his wife, Helen, who died of colon cancer in 2002. Helen was a nurse at Hazel Hawkins. Kutz said he felt linked to the hospital because of his wife and because he felt it was such an important part of the Hollister community, where he lived with his wife since 1945.
After her death, Kutz started going to the hospital regularly and visiting with patients. He found that conversation was the best way to distract his mind from his loss.
Dee Perez, who works in the lab at the hospital, noticed that Kutz was there frequently and suggested that since he came so often, he might as well volunteer. A week or so later, Kutz filled out the application and got his volunteer badge.
“I’m mad I didn’t do it sooner,” said Kutz. “It gets my mind off of what happened.”
The volunteer work that Kutz does is just as much for him as it is for the patients, he said. He enjoys making small talk with the patients and cracking jokes to take their mind off the fact that they are in a hospital.
“When I’m pushing patients in their wheelchairs, I always tell them I’m a San Francisco taxi driver and I’m going to go over the speed bumps at 60 miles per hour, and around curves at 70,” Kutz said, laughing.
Kutz enjoys volunteering so much that, although his weekly four-hour shifts start at 1pm, he usually is at the hospital by 9am. He also goes in to visit with patients at the nursing homes when he’s not at the hospital.
“On my days off, I go and visit because they’re lonely, too. And I enjoy it,” said Kutz.
Kutz volunteers on Wednesdays. But he is always eager to pick up extra shifts.
“If a volunteer doesn’t show up or someone calls me and needs a couple volunteers, he always says ‘Oh I’ll be glad to help you!’ and he’s always there,” said Volunteer Director Babette Martin.
Because he spends so much time at Hazel Hawkins, Kutz is well known around the hospital. Walking through the maze of rooms and labs at the hospital, Kutz greets nearly all the doctors, nurses and staff by name. If he forgets someone’s name or doesn’t know it, he calls them “Sunshine.”
“I talk to everybody,” said Kutz. “I’m not bashful. Life is too short to be bashful.”
His talkative and friendly personality has won Kutz many friends around the hospital.
“He’s a very charismatic person,” said Jesse Cordova, who is a cook at the hospital cafe. “He’s the type of person who could go out for a Miss Congeniality contest and win. He’s everybody’s grandfather.”
Although Kutz has found a particular need for volunteering, he feels it is something that anyone could benefit from.
“Especially for retired people –they’ve got nothing else to do,” said Kutz. “It’ll be comforting to them and it’ll be helpful to the hospital, too.”
As for Kutz, he plans to continue volunteering for as long as he is able.
“Once you get your feet wet, you kind of hate to give it up,” said Kutz.
Alice Joy covers education for the Free Lance. You can reach her at (831)637-5566 ext. 336 or at [email protected].
