Volunteers cheer patients, help staff at Kearney Regional Medical Center
Whether she’s delivering flowers to patients or folding 425 clean washcloths, Delaine Loewenstein is delighted to be a volunteer at Kearney Regional Medical Center.
The outgoing Loewenstein began volunteering in 2024 because she had just retired after 30 years as a receptionist at medical clinics around Kearney, and she missed being around people.
“I love it. I clean out the coffee maker in the general galley. I push wheelchairs. I deliver flowers to patients. I provide information to people whose loved ones are in surgery. I help people,” she said.
Delaine Loewenstein began volunteering at KRMC nearly two years ago because she missed people after she retired.
Loewenstein and the hospital’s 15 other volunteers play a critical role at the hospital, according to Amy Holcomb, who has been KRMC’s volunteer coordinator since last summer.
Volunteers do whatever is needed, from taking Kleenex boxes to nurse stations to delivering blood samples to the hospital lab.
They fold hundreds of clean washcloths and place them in bags of 25 for the hospital staff. They guide visitors around the hospital, especially around the new two-story wing that opened last October.
“You can get all your steps in for exercise every day while you’re feeling good about helping people,” Holcomb said.
Holcomb recruits volunteers through word of mouth and at places like local churches, civic groups and the Peterson Senior Activity Center. Volunteers must be at least 16 years old.
They apply online, after which Holcomb interviews them, does a background check and provides orientation and training.
Amy Holcomb has been the volunteer coordinator at Kearney Regional Medical Center since last summer.
They must commit to three months initially and put in eight hours a month, but they decide whether that's two hours every week, or four hours every other week, or any other combination that works for them.
In drawing up their schedules, Holcomb works around vacations, college schedules, medical appointments and more.
The Volunteer Services Department was launched in June 2023. Its first official volunteer was Patti Calhoun, wife of then-KRMC CEO Bill Calhoun. She had worked with John Stewart of Kearney, a military veteran who had run volunteer programs in hospitals in Florida, to get the program started.
Amanda Polacek, then hospital marketing manager, was the first volunteer coordinator. When she left the hospital in February 2025, Cody Riedel, KRMC’s public relations and communications manager, took over volunteer responsibilities until Holcomb arrived.
Five of the 16 current volunteers are UNK students like Makayla Foster of Denver, a sophomore who came to UNK to play volleyball.
Makayla Foster, a sophomore nursing student at UNK, started volunteering at KRMC six weeks ago.
Foster began volunteering six weeks ago because she is studying to be a nurse, and volunteering in a hospital is required in one of her classes.
She’s no stranger to health care because her mother is a nurse, but she likes seeing the hospital world through her own eyes.
“I do random projects. I greet people. I walk visitors to where they need to go. I push people in wheelchairs. I like being involved in the hospital," she said.
Holcomb hopes to add a few more volunteer positions soon, like cookie baker and an artist who can decorate hospital windows to cheer patients.
Cookies would be baked in the hospital kitchen once or twice a week and delivered to guests, patients and their families.
“They can bake a difference, one cookie at a time,” Holcomb joked.
Prior to taking this position, Holcomb did customer service work and volunteered in schools and her church. “I’ve always had a heart for helping people,” she said. “It feels good to be able to help connect people with the hospital to do good things.”
For more information on volunteering, call 308-455-3636 or visit KRMCVolunteers@bryanhealth.org
