St. Olaf eyes merger with AMC

By Lee Bonorden (Contact) | Austin Daily Herald

Published Monday, October 13, 2008

By LEE BONORDEN

lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com

The St. Olaf Hospital Auxiliary has endorsed a merger with Austin Medical Center — Mayo Health System.

The approval came Friday.

The auxiliary’s executive board approved the move at a special meeting Friday morning, and the Auxiliary’s membership gave their approval at the organization’s 49th annual meeting Friday afternoon at the First Congregational Church (UCC), Austin.

Both votes of approval came with wide margins, the Auxiliary announced.

The merger of St. Olaf, which is an independent entity, with Mayo will now need the support of Mayo’s governing board.

In other action Friday, the organization’s treasurer Janet Borchardt presented Rod Nordeng, AMC’s vice president - organization support, with a check for $25,000.

The check represents final payment of a $100,000 pledge by the Auxiliary to fund the new chapel under construction at AMC Austin. In expressing AMC Austin’s appreciation, Nordeng told the Auxiliary members, “This will go to a very good cause” and also said, “This will benefit our patients for decades to come.”

Nordeng also described progress with the chapel project.

Work on the project begins this week.

He shared some of the interior color selections to enhance the maple cross, reflective statue and vaulted ceilings of the chapel.

According to Nordeng, the project should be completed by year’s end.

The Auxiliary meeting was also the occasion to honor volunteers who reached milestones during 2007.

Among the top volunteers were 1,000 hour pin recipients, Janet Augustin, Marilyn Berg, Kay Gullickson, Del Hanson, Karen Krachmer, Ramona Swenson and Marie Wiese.

Receiving 3,000 hour pins were Irene Anderson, Mary Bissen, Jean Dykeman, June Gennrich and Helen Hyland.

Karen Olson, Auxiliary president, received a pin recognizing her reaching the 4,000 hour mark of service. Auxiliary treasurer Borchardt was honored for reaching the 10,000 hour level of volunteer service.

In her remarks to the membership, president Olson noted there are 92 auxiliaries in Minnesota, representing 18,000 volunteers. Based upon a $19.46 per hour value of volunteer service, that amounts to a total value of $18.4-million from auxiliaries across Minnesota.

In Austin’s southeastern Minnesota district, there are 3,812 auxiliaries with 180,460 members, who contribute $420,000 annually in volunteer services, according to Olson.

The local auxiliary has 135 volunteers who contributed 14,883 hours to AMC Austin in 2007. Both are slight increases over 2006’s 128 volunteers and 13,193 hours.

The Auxiliary members were served dinner by the women of First Congrgegational Church (UCC) before holding their business meeting Friday.