Teens spend summer volunteering

For the next few months, you will see young teens at Eisenhower Medical Center. One hundred and six of them to be exact.

“Its very important to various departments because of a lot of our regular volunteers are snowbirds so they leave us so we really need that extra help in the summertime,” Sharon Pogue, the Eisenhower Medical Center gift shop manager, said.

They’re a part of Eisenhower’s Junior Volunteers, a program for teens age 14-16.
Eisenhower Medical Center has offered this program for decades, and it gets bigger every year. The program has been full for the last three years.

Nicole Calderon volunteers in the gift shop.

“Nobody in the gift shop gets aid. Nobody gets paid. They are all people who volunteer their own time and do it for personal gain or to help the community rather than for money,” Calderon said.

Austin Collins gives his time to the errand room.

“I wheelchair to the rooms, take them to their cars. I deliver flowers to the room, deliver notes,” Collins said.

Neither wants to get into the medical field. They just want to do good this summer — and they urge other teens to do the same.

“It’s a great way to spend your time. Sitting on a couch you’re not doing anything. Here you’re active, talking to people, actually socializing. Its a good way to spend your time and not just waste it,” Calderon said.

“They work hard in school. they work hard in the community. They will be the leaders of the future,” Pogue said.

Some other organizations always looking for volunteers are Companions Visitation Ministry of Sacred Heart Church, the Palm Springs Animal Shelter, the First Tee of the Coachella Valley, and Habitat for Humanity.