UH Conneaut shows appreciation for donations

CONNEAUT – The staff and administration at University Hospitals Conneaut Medical Center use a day each spring to make sure they show gratitude to the organizations and individuals that go above and beyond.
At the annual Spring Fling at UH Conneaut Medical Center, the volunteers of the Conneaut Hospital Thrift Shop were recognized for their annual donation of medical equipment.
“We can’t say enough about our gratitude toward this group of people,” Jane Green, patient experience advisor at UH Conneaut and Geneva medical centers, said. “They always come through for us. They work so hard each and every day at that thrift shop, and I think it’s a wonderful service to the community as well as to the hospital.”
The Conneaut Hospital Thrift Shop board chooses which items to donate from a wish list provided by the hospital.
The items on the UH Conneaut Medical Center 2026 wish included a Prime X stretcher ($11,439.46); EconoMax4 procedure table ($18,912); T3XM Treadmill ($6,385); a SiteRite 9; a GE patient monitor B450 ($4,195) and two Fostoria heaters – mobile MRI canopy ($25,184).
“Most of the equipment that they’re buying is expensive,” Green said. “They’re considered capital items, which is an item that is a considerable amount of money for the hospital, and they offset that cost by what they’re doing for us. We can’t be grateful enough to service our patients with that equipment and our community.”
“Certainly, (some of the items donated) could be a bit out of reach for us, and with their contribution, it makes all the difference,” Jane continued.
The Conneaut Hospital Thrift Shop Board had not made a decision on which item was being donated at the time of the reception.
“We didn’t have our meeting yet to vote on what to give them,” Conneaut Hospital Thrift Shop Co-Treasurer Maureen Greenawalt said. “They gave us a list of five things that they want.”
The money raised for the equipment that is donated comes from selling gently-used items from the Conneaut Hospital Thrift Shop.
“We do sell small furniture items, but nothing big,” Fertig said. “We don’t have the room for it. There might be an end table or something like that, that will sell, but it’s mostly clothes and housewares.”
The hospital thrift shop volunteers know their donations matter.
“If (patients) don’t have this little hospital here, then they have to go somewhere else,” Conneaut Hospital Thrift Shop President Jan Fertig said. “We want our little community hospital right here, because it’s convenient and it’s nice. I could rent a room and stay there for a week.”
The donations are meant to make it easier for the hospital staff to serve its patients.
“It allows the different departments to do other things that they need to do because they don’t have to worry about the equipment we donate,” Conneaut Hospital Thrift Shop Vice President Sue Durant said. “If we can buy something for a department that they need, or there are other things that they want that they can’t get, we try to help them.”
The UH Conneaut Medical Center staff understand the care that goes into the donation by the thrift shop.
“They do it with such love and care, and they really want to help,” Green said. “They really want to make a difference, and that’s why we include them in what we do here are Spring Fling. We do a special little room here for them, because it’s just such an honor for us to thank them.”
The donations to UH Conneaut Medical Center are only possible because of the generous donations received from the community.
“Our people in Conneaut are very generous because the donations they give us are very, very nice, and that’s why people come in every day to see what new things we put out,” Durant said. “Some will come in twice a day just to see what was put out on the floor. I give a lot of thanks to the community, because we’re really grateful for them. Sometimes they won’t even get the stuff on the floor, and somebody will take it off the cart they’re bringing it out on. We just enjoy it.”