Volunteer Celebrates 70 Years of Giving Back at Lincoln Memorial Hospital

Shirley Dittus has never faced a task she couldn’t tackle. If you ask her about her occupation, she will tell you she was a farmer’s wife in rural Atlanta, Illinois.

But much like the term “volunteer” at a hospital, that job description encompasses many roles and a wide variety of responsibilities.

“I can do just about anything,” the 93-year-old said. “I drove a truck, a combine, even a firetruck years ago when our son accidentally set the field on fire. The fireman sat on the fender of the firetruck with the water hose and needed someone to drive … so I did.”

Volunteering at Lincoln Memorial Hospital for 70 years has also provided Shirley with an array of different tasks. When she was a young bride, Shirley attended an open house for the new Abraham Lincoln Memorial Hospital (ALMH) in downtown Lincoln. The date? April 2, 1954.

The Dittus family had supported financial efforts to establish the Lincoln hospital, and Shirley started volunteering in 1955. She helped sew draperies and patient gowns and wrapped bandages for the new facility. In the 1960s, she was a founding member of the hospital Auxiliary, helping to grow the vision of what the Auxiliary could do in support of the hospital.

At that time, the ALMH Auxiliary was one of only 15 hospital auxiliaries in the state, and representatives, including Shirley, traveled throughout Illinois to share ideas and encouragement. They also lobbied at the State Capitol alongside groups like the Illinois Hospital Association. Shirley remembers meeting then-Governor Jim Thompson, attending meetings with hospital administrators and educating legislators about hospital bills.

“We would hire buses and bring in Auxiliary members from all over the state,” she said. “We would make our presence known. That’s probably one of my favorite memories. If there was a bill in the legislature that needed passed, the state chair would call a meeting, and we would congregate at the Statehouse.”

When ground was broken for the new hospital on the west side of Lincoln in 2010, Shirley was there with a shovel for the ceremony. She has volunteered under four different hospital CEOs, including current president and CEO Dolan Dalpoas.

“I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with Shirley my entire career,” Dalpoas said at a volunteer reception in April. “She is one of the kindest and most generous persons I have ever known.”

Today, Shirley helps with the “Tis the Season” holiday luncheon, which has kicked off the holiday season in Lincoln for 30 years and continues to benefit Auxiliary programs that support LMH.

“If you are a patient coming to physical therapy or in for tests, it is the volunteers who change the beds, wipe down the wheelchairs and get everything ready for the next patient,” Shirley said. “There are so many places where the volunteers fit into the hospital setting, and the community with the LMH Market or the other fundraising activities. It really is a hardworking Auxiliary.”

Just like Shirley.