Ozella Stewart may be the oldest volunteer at Clearview Cancer Institute’s Decatur clinic, but she is by far the quickest. At 92 years old, Ozella has time to make coffee, prepare the snack cart, check on warm blankets, and even hug staff members, patients and caregivers along the way.
“I’m still very active and I’m still planning to work for a long, long time,” Stewart said.
Ozella said she felt a calling to volunteer after being a caregiver for a Clearview patient.
“I was a caregiver for this gentleman and we were in and out of here several times a week for something over five years. I would be here all day long and we didn’t have a lot of volunteers at that time so I just started volunteering not officially, but just because I wanted to help,” Stewart said.
Now, Ozella has been a volunteer in an official capacity for six years, telling us she loves spending her Mondays at the Decatur clinic, “Oh, I love everything about it, especially how appreciative the patients are when you carry them a warm blanket or carry them a snack. They just seem so humble and appreciative of everything you do for them,” she said.
Ozella’s advice to anyone that may be interested in volunteering?
“You just pet them, and give them a hug and make them as comfortable as you can. I say don’t put it off if. If you feel like that’s your calling to be a volunteer, go for it,” she said.
To learn more about volunteering at Clearview Cancer Institute, visit our website HERE.
To watch our interview with Ozella, click HERE.