A great history of service
Records kept by early members of the Vanderbilt Auxiliary show that on Jan. 13,
1928, four women married to Vanderbilt physicians met to form a bridge club.
They agreed to expand the membership to 24 members with the expenses of each
meeting not to exceed $5.
Just one month later, one of the new members brought a concern to the group’s meeting. She told them she had learned of a “great need of a loan fund to supplement the inadequate allowance of some
Vanderbilt student nurses.” A Benefit Bridge Party raised $575 for student loans.
Just two years after the nursing school loans were raised, in 1930, the Bridge
Club learned of another pressing need. The lean economic times made it
difficult for some families to provide basic clothing and essentials for infant
children.
Over the next 10 months, the club held fundraisers to pay for materials, making
143 new garments and donating 146 gently used ones to the newborns and their
families. Vanderbilt Hospital Social Service Aid was launched in 1931 and a
series of local bank failures in 1933 resulted in ever more pressing needs.
By 1952, the group had been renamed the Sewing Club and became part of the
Vanderbilt Auxiliary in 1954. While the Sewing Club is the only functioning arm
of the Auxiliary these days, the legacy of the Auxiliary continues,
particularly in gift shop proceeds.
Established in 1957 in a tiny alcove on Garland Avenue, the gift shop staffed by
Auxiliary volunteers in its first year recorded sales of just under $3,000. Now
run professionally, the gift shop provided more than $360,000 in nursing and
medical school scholarship monies in the past four years, according to Bill
Rochford, director of Client and Community Relations.
At a new faculty reception on Sept. 23 this year, Balser and Colleen Conway
Welch, dean of the School of Nursing, honored the Auxiliary and the Sewing Club
members for their long tradition of supporting student scholarships.
Over the years, the Auxiliary worked to meet many needs in the hospital from
incubators to surgical instruments to furnishings for a doctors’ lounge. They provided seed money for the hospital hair salon, a pool table for
adolescents, sleep chairs for patients rooms, and a strolling puppet show. They
even hung the Christmas decorations around the hospital.
While this is no longer the routine, at one time various Medical Center entities
would come to the Sewing Club with particular requests. For example, the
Hospitality House was granted $1,000 for a heat and air unit in 1993, while
that same year, the critical care unit got a TV/VCR for patients, and the
Tennessee Poison Control Center received $1,500 toward educational brochures
and pamphlets while NICU got $800 to make coffee for patient families.
With changing times and more medical spouses working full time, the Auxiliary’s membership has declined, Lefkowitz noted. There are excellent avenues in place
among professional staff members for channeling volunteers and donations into
the Medical Center, she said. Collegiality continues to be fostered by other
social organizations, such as the Newcomers’ Club and the Women’s Club.
The Sewing Club and other such social organizations with a purpose “represent a part of the total excellence of what is accomplished in a major
medical center,” Lefkowitz said. “It fosters friendships and collegiality and all of the things that help people
work together better.”
Rochford lauded the Sewing Club for their “lifelong commitment to each other and to the Medical Center.”
“Over the years the Sewing Club has provided an opportunity for fellowship and
service as well as a support network and a collegial network for their spouses.
Many of their children and grandchildren have grown up together.”
“What they have done has really made a significant impact on the environment for
our patients and our staff and they continue to do that in their own unique
way, and we are grateful,” Rochford said.
Luther agreed that the Sewing Club’s impact is often hidden but important.
“I hold the members of the Sewing Club in highest esteem for their faithful
service all these years on behalf of our patients,” she said. “They are a quiet group of women working behind the scenes to make life better
for other people. They have touched innumerable lives.”
