Published: Aug. 3, 2018
The Sparrow Women’s Board of Managers and the Sparrow Volunteer Services Department have named Sandy Smith of Dewitt the August Volunteer of the Month. Smith has been volunteering in the Pediatric-Child Life department for 6 years and enjoys interacting with the patients and their families as well as the other volunteers who she coordinates and trains. She is said to spend many hours coordinating the group and supporting the Child Life staff as well. She also coordinates the teen, college and adult volunteers to accommodate each volunteers’ personal life and their schedules, such as work, school and family. She never turns a volunteer away because of scheduling. She treats them all as her own family.
Smith is also on the Patient Family Advisory Council and does Patient Experience interviews.
Smith was interested in volunteering with Pediatrics after experiencing Sparrow’s care for her and her 8- year old son who both were battling cancer at the same time. Her son did not survive, but she did.
Smith and her husband, Shawn, who is a pastor have two other children, age 22 and 19 and are foster parents to 2 young children at home. When asked if she has any hobbies, she said, “no, I’m a pastor’s wife”! Obviously, that’s a busy job! They don’t have much time to travel, but have taken the children to Disney World.
She grew up in the Boston area, attended Pensacola Christian College studying Early Childhood Education and then taught Kindergarten and 5th. grade. She has done some academic writing and editing for pediatric care books.
The Sparrow Women’s Board of Managers takes great pride in honoring volunteers like Sandy Smith who share their time and talent for the benefit of Sparrow’s patients and families. To learn more about volunteering at Sparrow, please visit Sparrow.org or call our office at 517.364.3606, option 1.