MIDDLETON-"Are you Mr. Francis Burns?" asked Harvey Jordan in a soft voice as he approached the man lying on the hospital stretcher.
When he got a yes, Jordan identified himself as a hospital volunteer then told the patient he would be pushing him back to his room at Veterans Hospital.
Burns was appreciative.
"It's very comforting having them around," Burns said of the volunteers.
"They keep the hospital running, are efficient and a big help to the nurses, doctors and hospital in general."
Jordan and three other Rock County residents travel together every other Thursday to the hospital, where they each volunteer 16 hours a month. They have a combined total of 42 years of volunteer experience at the VA.
Their service is critical to the hospital, said Mary J. Merlin, voluntary service specialist.
"If an employee had to stop and do what the volunteers do, it takes away from patient care. They're a great asset,'' Merlin said.
During fiscal year 2006, 400 people volunteered 72,000 hours to 15 departments at the hospital, Merlin said.
"We push patients around to different rooms, take charts to the file room and do whatever we're called for," Jordan said.
After checking in at the voluntary services office, volunteers work from a small, first-floor room where chairs line two walls and a small TV hangs in the corner above the sole desk and phone.
By 10:30 a.m. on a recent Thursday, 35 calls came in to the office.
One was from the front desk requesting more wheelchairs for arriving patients.
John Thompson of Edgerton responded to the call.
"I like to help the vets and see the patients smile. It's very rewarding," Thompson said.
He's a naval aviation Korean War vet.
Another call asked a volunteer to deliver a food tray from the kitchen to a patient in the emergency room.
Beulah Rudolph, 76, of Edgerton responded.
When Robert Updike, a 78-year-old World War II and Korean veteran from Edgerton, returned to the volunteer room, he explained his willingness to help others.
"I came home without a scratch. I feel I owe it to these guys,'' he said.
Jordan, Updike and Thompson are members of the Military Order of Cooties Pup Tent 33, Edgerton. Rudolph is a member of Cooties Pup Tent 9 Auxiliary, Janesville.
Volunteering is what they're all about.
Rudolph has been secretary for the Edgerton VFW Post Auxiliary for 25 years and writes a column about the auxiliary for the Edgerton Reporter.
Jordan, Thompson and Updike volunteer for the Edgerton Memorial Squad at military funerals. Thompson and Jordan are members of the rifle squad while Updike is the flag folder. The men also are members of the Edgerton VFW.
They log about 9 miles each shift in their tennis shoes.
Between calls to pick up X-rays and shuttle charts and patients, they discuss family and fishing and chat with other volunteers.
Updike said the work is rewarding.
"They can be so sick, but they always can say thank you."
To volunteer
Call Mary J. Merlin, voluntary service specialist, at the Wm S. Middleton VA Hospital, (608) 280-7030.
What is a Cootie?
The Military Order of the Cootie is a subordinate order of the Veterans of Foreign Wars composed exclusively of VFW members in good standing. They pledge to:
-- Remember veterans confined to hospitals, nursing homes and veterans facilities.
-- Show concern for children at the VFW national home.
-- Love God and country and be concerned for their fellow man.
