I volunteer for no simpler reason than to see a patient smile.

-Michelle Bagi, a UI Hospitals and Clinics student volunteer

Volunteering is a unique experience-the more you help others, the more you help yourself. Volunteering affords you the opportunity to step outside yourself and do something new, to get involved. Volunteers are people who want to make a difference-and they do.

"Each year nearly 1,300 men, women, and students volunteer more than 70,000 hours to support the patients, visitors, and staff at UI Hospitals and Clinics," says Mary Ameche, director of Volunteer Services.

Volunteers hold a hand, offer a cup of coffee, or make sure family members have a pillow or blanket if the wait is long. They help staff members in clinics, read to children, see what needs to be done, and then see that it gets done. 

When you volunteer you enrich your life, you learn new skills, you meet new friends, you develop leadership skills, you have a good time. But most of all, there is the satisfaction that you have made a difference in someone's life, says Ameche. 

Visit Volunteer Services to learn more about volunteering at UI Hospitals and Clinics. If you are interested in volunteering, call 356-2515.

Everyone can be great, because everyone can serve.

-Martin Luther King, Jr.