Baxter pride on display at Skiff Medical Center gift shop

Skiff Medical Center accepts patients from towns all over the county, but as far as volunteering goes, the City of Baxter is well represented.

While visiting the gift shop inside Skiff, there’s a good chance customers meet one of the four volunteers from Baxter who work there.

Donna Akins and the three other women are recently retired and found a new work home at the hospital. They are known as the Baxter girls to the other volunteers.

“I do think some of the volunteers are surprised we come all the way from Baxter,” Akins said. “And they do call us the Baxter girls too. I think they appreciate that another town in the county is showing interest.”

Even though all four of the volunteers work in the same gift shop, each of them found their way to Baxter at different times of their lives.

Sharon Allspach worked with Akins for 30 years at Baxter Community Schools prior to volunteering at Skiff Medical Center and said she has liked following that up with her volunteer work.

“It was an extremely rewarding career, but I had found this to be just as rewarding because I see the goodwill from the volunteers and then the people in the community who come in and support it,” Allspach said.

The gift shop sees plenty of foot traffic each day and the proceeds of the store fund scholarships for students going into the medical field. At a recent luncheon, 22 scholarships of $1,000 were given out — two of which were received by Baxter students.

“To actually see that money go to a good cause and go to those students to further their education into a medical profession has made us better people,” Allspach said.

After so many years as an English teacher at Baxter, Akins said it has been an interesting transition to working at the gift shop.

“I like it because it’s so different from what I did in my career and so it has expanded my friendships,” Akins said. “You’re used to helping students, but here you’re helping someone find a gift. It is fun to do something totally different from what we did.”

Profits from the gift shop also help fund improvements for medical equipment at Skiff.

Akins is actually neighbors with another member of the Baxter girls — Nancy Foreman. Foreman retired from an accounting career at Prairie Meadows two years ago. She then became the first of the four to begin volunteering at the gift shop.

“They were good followers,” Foreman said in regard to the other three women who began volunteering after her.

The Baxter girls consider the Skiff Medical Center gift shop to be the best kept secret in town because of the variety of items it offers. The merchandise is selected by Allspach and Judy Sumpter — the final Baxter girl who doesn’t actually work in the gift shop but teams up with Allspach to order merchandise and stock shelves after the store is closed.

Sumpter said helping the gift shop function and knowing the funds will go to a good cause creates a great sense of accomplishment each time she works.

“When we come in and we unpack, set stuff out and then go home, I don’t think our feet are touching the ground. We just have such a good feeling,” Sumpter said.

Akins agreed and said it’s a place she loves being each day.

“I just like the medical atmosphere. I’ve always liked that,” she said. “Just being in here and seeing people come in. You leave with a warm feeling and it’s nice to know whatever you sell is going to go to a good cause.”

Working in a hospital, the volunteers get to talk with a variety of people going through numerous situations, which Allspach also said creates a rewarding feeling.

“I think it’s meeting people and being able to visit with them and listen,” Allspach said. “There’s some sorrows sometimes but there’s some joyous times as well with newborn babies. It’s just a feeling of goodwill. You meet so many people.”

She said she loves directing guests to the baby section, which is one of many improvements the gift shop has made throughout the years.

Marge Tiedje, a Colfax High School graduate and 96-year-old Newton resident, has been volunteering her time at the gift shop for 26 years and has seen it multiply in size.

“I’ve enjoyed it and I’ve seen it grow. It’s much more than it used to be. It was just a little tiny hole in the wall,” Tiedje said.

Outside of the baby section, the shop also sells jewelry, clothing, flowers, house decorations, purses and cards. The Baxter girls even said people come from out of town just to stop at the gift shop.

Only one volunteer usually works at a time, but despite working separate shifts, the four volunteers from Baxter are still known as the Baxter girls within the gift shop.

Contact Alex Olp at
aolp@jaspercountytribune.com