CONNEAUT – The volunteers at the Conneaut Hospital Thrift shop work at turning items that are no longer wanted or needed into a way to improve the community.
The Conneaut Hospital Thrift Shop presented checks for its two favorite charitable endeavors – scholarships to Ashtabula County students and University Hospitals Conneaut Medical Center – on Tuesday, May 12.
The hospital thrift shop volunteers presented a number of scholarships to high-school seniors and local college students during the reception.
“We love to give the kids money to help them out in going to school and hopefully we can increase the amount or the number in the future,” Cheryl Johnston, a member of the Conneaut Hospital Thrift Shop, said. “We’re real proud of giving out the money to help the kids. We work on it all year long.”
The first scholarship was awarded in 2008 in the amount of $500. In 2011, that amount increased to $1,000 before increasing to the current amount of $1,250. The number of scholarships handed out each year is determined by sales at the thrift shop and voted on by the volunteers.
Nearly $200,000 in scholarships have been awarded.
The hospital thrift shop awarded 20 scholarships totaling $25,000 this year.
“You can see that the money made is reinvested into ours and surrounding communities,” Johnston said.
Scholarship recipients included Jessica Beery and Stellaluna Madrigal of St. John High School; Julia Scarniench, Natalie Houser-Stover, Morgan French, Natalie Ianetta, Addison Lamson and Lucianna Paolillo of Edgewood High School; Danica Meckley of Grand Valley High School; Hamilton Spero, Ashlyn Sherman and Ximena Reynoso of Kent State University-Ashtabula Campus; Macie Payne and Karis Peyton of Pymatuning Valley High School; Korrine Johnson, Hope Gleason, Abby Brecht and Carrick Dobran of Conneaut High School; and Dakota Furman and Alexa Zeman of Jefferson Area High School.
“They were all top of the class,” Johnston said. “They were all amazing, every single one of them. (What impressed us most) was how many things they’re involved in. They work, they are in sports, they carry top grades. They are just in everything and yet maintain their grades. They are smart. They’re way smarter than I ever dreamed of. All of them were very smart.”
Prior to the scholarship presentation, the Conneaut Hospital Thrift Shop announced it was donating two Fostoria heaters for the mobile MRI canopy at a cost of $25,184 and a T3XM Treadmill costing $6,385.
“We’re really grateful for the support from the thrift shop,” Jonathan Sague, chief operating officer for University Hospitals Conneaut, Geauga and Geneva medical centers, said. “Oftentimes, the money donated helps us do things that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to do that weren’t in the budget.”
The heaters for the mobile canopy unit will allow patients to receive care even during the winter months.
“We bring very specialized semi-trucks on campus,” Sague said. “They have various types of imaging equipment on them. One of them is an MRI machine that we otherwise wouldn’t be able to have in that capacity. We have to get the patients out there and, in the winter, it’s very cold and windy. A canopy can go part of the way, but heaters go a long way in making patients comfortable as they transition, sometimes in a gown and a robe, out into that trailer to get their imaging.”
The treadmill will be used in the rehabilitation department.
