Bill McDonald says that when you knock on the door of a hospital room, you never know what needs are going to be waiting behind it.
“Many times it’s much more than just a physical need,” he said of the patients he visits regularly as a hospital lay chaplain in Tuscaloosa. “We want to help them with any spiritual needs they have too. We’re just there to encourage.”
And encourage he has — for more than 1,500 hours’ worth of volunteer time in the past six years. He’s also trained 31 other lay chaplains.
And for that work he was recently awarded the Alabama Hospital Association’s (AHA) Outstanding Auxilian Award.
“Volunteers like Mr. McDonald provide invaluable support to hospital staff and to patients and their families,” said Dr. Donald E. Williamson, AHA president.
Six years ago, when McDonald, a member of Northport Baptist Church, “sort of” retired as head athletic trainer for the University of Alabama, he approached a friend who was an administrator at the hospital and asked if she would be willing to let him try to revive the hospital’s lay chaplaincy program.
In addition to the recent award, he was named Northport’s Religious Leader of the Year in 2016. (Grace Thornton)
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