Hillcrest Medical Center Honors 91-Year-Old Volunteer

Hillcrest Medical Center held its annual awards banquet on Thursday to celebrate its volunteers. About 40 people have donated a total of more than 5,500 hours of their time at the hospital this year.

Margie Perdue retired from a career in accounting 29 years ago, but she never really stopped working. She’s been volunteering at Hillcrest for two decades and counting.

Many patients' first impression of Hillcrest is often Margie. "Everybody knows the old white-haired lady," said Margie Perdue. "[It's] my home away from home."

The 91-year-old is kind of famous within the walls of the hospital.

"I was taking a patient all the way down the hall, and everybody was, 'Margie, hello Margie.' He said, 'I kind of think I should ask for your autograph,'" Margie laughed.

Margie helps with registration, where she greets patients and escorts them to their procedure.

"After you've been a few hundred thousand times you know where things are," said Margie.

Hillcrest gave her an award for more than 19,000 hours of volunteer work over 20 years.

"My sister had been a volunteer and when my husband passed away, she insisted that I give volunteering a try, so I did and I liked it and I've been doing it ever since," said Margie.

Margie enjoys meeting new people. "Lots of people that I'm very fond of. Employees and patients," said Margie.

She volunteers three days a week from 5 a.m. to noon.

"I think for Margie, it's her heart and her honesty. I think she just has that candidness about her where you just feel really welcome and you feel like she knows what she's doing," said Christina Escamilla, Volunteer Coordinator.

"It's all my pleasure," said Margie.

Now, she's calling on younger people to put the phones down long enough to try volunteering. "Try it. See. See how you enjoy it. Be helpful. Meet people," said Margie.

"We've got a lot of opportunities. Our patient transport. We've got waiting rooms. We have a book cart. We've got a mail cart, a cuddler program," said Escamilla.

"Let's get together. Let's get together," said Margie.