- April 18, 2024
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AdventHealth Palm Coast volunteer Marcus Ellison. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Marcus Ellison, right, with volunteer Marilou Dailey in the AdventHealth Palm Coast gift shop. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Marcus Ellison with fellow volunteers Doris Wilson and Marilou Dailey in the AdventHealth Palm Coast gift shop. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Marcus Ellison began volunteering in 2005 at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis. He wanted to pay back the nurses who took care of him during a very trying year.
He has been a hospital volunteer ever since.
Ellison spent most of 2004 in and out of the hospital with spinal meningitis. To this day he is bothered by neuropathy in his feet caused by the meningitis infection.
"I walk like I'm walking on broken glass," he said. "There are days I can hardly walk."
He has tried every treatment, drug and therapy for his affliction. Nothing has worked for very long. Still, he continues to volunteer.
He has volunteered at AdventHealth Palm Coast since 2014 when he moved here. He started as a volunteer in Same Day Surgery and then became second vice president and assistant treasurer with the hospital's Volunteer Auxiliary board.
"Marcus is not only very outgoing, helpful, resourceful and kind but is also always putting the needs of others before himself. Marcus can be relied upon to step up on a moment's notice to lend a hand to help with any type of emergency situation."
PATTY MERCER
"Marcus is not only very outgoing, helpful, resourceful and kind but is also always putting the needs of others before himself," said former auxiliary board president Patty Mercer, who nominated Ellison for a Standing O.
Same Day Surgery is where Ellison began volunteering at St. Vincent, taking patients and their families into the treatment rooms.
"I loved it," he said, "Helping the nurses, talking to patients, listening to their families, helping to calm them down."
Volunteering helped Ellison fill the hole left by leaving his job because of ill health. He had worked in group sales for Marriott Hotels. He was on the road six days a week traveling the country until he retired in 2005.
"I loved my job, but I couldn't do it anymore," he said. "I was standing up, doing a presentation, and I fell into a stack of chairs."
He's no longer on the road, but he has remained busy ever since. As second vice president of the auxiliary, he was in charge of keeping track of volunteer hours, service awards, birthdays, etc. It was a way of getting to know all of the hospital's volunteers.
But he discovered the operating system was balky and outdated with records hard to find and sometimes lost. After a year's lobbying, his proposal for purchasing new software was approved. With the pandemic keeping volunteers out of the hospital in 2020, Ellison built a new database from scratch to keep track of volunteers' hours, trainings, vaccinations and certifications.
As assistant treasurer, he learned the bookkeeping system and became "the go-to guy" for questions regarding the auxiliary's finances, Mercer said. When the auxiliary was dissolved last year, with the hospital taking over volunteer services, Mercer said Ellison's insight helped guide the board to an amicable resolution.
"I love my volunteers. I try to take them under my wing."
MARCUS ELLISON
Ellison was thrilled when volunteers were allowed to return to the hospital last year as he could interact again with patients, families, hospital staff and his fellow volunteers.
"I love my volunteers," he said. "I try to take them under my wing."
Ellison's volunteer work extends beyond the hospital. For example, before the pandemic he dressed up as Santa and delivered gifts to the RCMA Flagler Child Development Center in Bunnell.
"There's nothing better than those kids thanking you as Santa," he said.
After leaving the center, he went to the Post Office to mail a package, still wearing the Santa outfit.
"I go by the motto, LTS," he said. "Life is too short to not have fun."
