NATCHEZ — Have you ever noticed the person sitting behind the welcome desk at the hospital? What about the person who delivers flowers to the patient’s rooms?

Natchez Regional Medical Center has a volunteer program that has kept operations running smoothly since 1977.

Since the program began, the Natchez Regional volunteers have raised enough money through book and jewelry sales to refurbish the chapel and a hospital classroom.

“The volunteers pretty much do everything to keep the hospital running,” Natchez Regional Director of Guest Services Margaret Brown said.

The volunteers perform activities such as meeting and greeting visitors, recording and filing papers, running the gift shop, delivering flowers and distributing magazines. The volunteers are just as important to the hospital as the hospital is to the volunteers.

“The volunteers have become such a part of the Natchez Regional atmosphere,” volunteer Sonya Stephens said.

Natchez Regional also has 15 ministers that offer patients spiritual guidance.

“We have 40 volunteers that give over 10,000 hours annually,” Brown said. “It is hard to reduce to measurable data.”

Volunteers work four hours per day, one day per week and contribute the equivalent of $49,000 annually. They help make guests and patients comfortable during their stay.

The main objective for the volunteers is to create smiles despite some sad situations, and to help visitors with questions.

The volunteers not only try to help visitors, they are just as concerned with staff members. They try to ease the burden of a stressful, high pressure job.

Natchez Regional gift shop volunteers Barbra Persons and Jackie Wade pride themselves on the positive effects the shop has on hospital staff.

“We find it’s giving back to the staff more than anything else,” Wade said.

“We have a place where people can see pretty things,” Persons said.

The staff is just as thankful for the contribution the volunteers make.

“We get so caught up in the seriousness of our job, and they help lift our spirits,” Business Office Director Becky Fulton said. “If they were not here the hospital would lose its personality.”

Despite different reasons for joining the volunteer program, they all share a special bond because of the title they hold.

“I have very unique relationships with the volunteers I work with, it’s something that will always be very special to me,” Natchez Regional volunteer of 27 years, Evelyn Williams said.

Many of the women that work with the volunteer program have lost loved ones and find solitude in giving back their time.

“It has made Jackie and I the best of friends,” Persons said. “We are so much closer than we used to be.”

Many of the volunteers have been with the program long term. Regional has one charter member and three that have worked since the first year.

“I love it, this is my life,” volunteer LouVerta Langston said.

None of the volunteers seem to be losing any passion for the job they love so much.

“We will go until we can’t make it any longer,” Wade said