UAMS Auxiliary & Volunteer Services

11/05/2025

A Decade of Warmth: Annual Blanket Drive Returns! ✨

We want to collaborate with you to wrap patients and families in warmth this winter. From November 3rd through December 10th, we are accepting donations of new blankets in the spirit of the season.

For the past 10 years, UAMS Auxiliary has shared your gifts to create comfort, hope, and healing for patients and families with UAMS Medical Center over the holidays.

Thanks to the generosity of our community partners, our organization has been able to gift brand-new blankets to patients in our hospital units, hand-delivered by Santa Claus and his troupe of Auxiliary elves.

Come by with your donation now through Dec. 10th. We are located at the Office of Volunteer Engagement, UAMS Medical Center Suite 1E50, across from the Gift Shop. You can also contact Jaimel Jointer (jjointer@uams.edu) to arrange pickup.

Donate as many blankets as you like—we accept small or bulk donations.
Ready to make a difference? Your donation earns a spot on Santa's "Nice" List. Help us wrap our community in love this holiday season. 🎁

11/01/2025

The winter holidays will be here before we know it! We're looking forward to celebrating with you this season, in a spirit of giving. Look out for more details to come as we move through fall into the holidays, and on into a new year.

10/31/2025

October swept by for UAMS Medical Center Auxiliary as fall weather took hold! Our team joined several events to raise awareness about our programs and opportunities to give!

Care Management Skills Fair | October 17 🍂

We connected with care management professionals to share how our Discharge with Dignity program supports patients at UAMS Health. SPOT Therapy dogs stole the show, and your generous donations made all the difference in our ability to support patients and families.

UAMS Benefits Fair | October 22 🎃

Auxiliary team members were on hand to remind our colleagues about the importance of their donations for our patient support programs. Thank you to everyone who donated. Your gifts go directly to assisting UAMS patients and their caregivers/families.

Scrub Sale | October 20-22 (and online through October 31) 🍁

Read's Uniforms brought out fall fashions for our medical professionals. Turnout was spook-tacular this year, and every purchase benefited Auxiliary patient support programs. Look out for our next Scrub Sale in spring 2026, we look forward to seeing you again soon!

10/02/2025

Check out the first issue of our revamped quarterly newsletter, from UAMS Auxiliary and the Office of Volunteer Engagement.

Each quarter, we will be doing spotlights on our talented volunteers, bringing in voices from stakeholders working on behalf of UAMS Auxiliary, & sharing events and news about our programs.

This month's issue features recent NICU volunteer Isabel, historic photos from our visit to the UAMS Historical Research Center, a rundown of upcoming Auxiliary events, and some recent stats from our 2025 volunteer feedback survey.

Reach out & let us know: What would our readers like to see featured in our newsletter each quarter? What information matters most to our community? Leave us a comment or reach out with a message. Happy fall, everyone!

08/20/2025

📣✨ As the 2025–2026 academic year kicks off, the UAMS Office of Volunteer Engagement is sending a big shoutout to the Central AR region's new & returning students! 📚✨

Why not start your semester with some meaningful volunteer service on your schedule?

Whether you’re:

✔️ earning service hours for a course
✔️ growing your community network
✔️ finding new ways to put compassion into action
. . we’ve got you covered!

📲 Scan the QR code to learn more & apply (click “Volunteer Now” in the blue field). This year, opportunities are waiting for you through programs like:

🏥 Helping Hands (Inpatient Units) – enhance patient experience and assist clinical staff.
🧭 WayFinders – guide visitors through the medical center.

Apply today and start giving back! 🌟 We look forward to assisting you in your service goals this semester and beyond!

07/15/2025

🩺✨ HEALERS Program 2025: Future Healthcare Heroes in Action! ✨🩺

UAMS Health welcomed 12 talented rising high school juniors and seniors to our Healthcare Education Active Learning Experience for Regional Scholars (HEALERS) Program!

These brilliant students scrubbed up to explore healthcare careers earlier this summer, laying crucial groundwork for futures in the medical workforce.

🩺🔬 Program highlights:

✅ Joined lectures, workshops, and demos with clinical and non-clinical experts at UAMS Health
✅ Conducted experiments in hands-on labs/practical tasks with UAMS faculty and staff
✅ Gained real-world experience through volunteer work in our hospital units and in patient experience contexts

The curiosity, teamwork, and dedication these students showed was absolutely inspiring! UAMS Office of Volunteer Engagement/UAMS Auxiliary was honored to host these future healthcare professionals and help students take a big step toward careers in health sciences.

Huge thanks to our UAMS HEALERS Intern Parker Byrd for planning and facilitating, and to all UAMS faculty and staff who contributed time, developed thoughtful demos and lectures, and made this summer program incredible!

06/06/2025

05/20/2025

We are delighted to announce our honorees from this year’s UAMS Auxiliary Awards of Excellence event!

Annually, UAMS Auxiliary sponsors UAMS Awards of Excellence. The Awards are bestowed to celebrate and honor excellence among UAMS staff throughout the hospital.

Congratulations to this year's award recipients. F4 Clinical Specialist Sonia Criswell, BSN, RN, TNCC was awarded the Helen May Compassionate Care Award, for "delivering patient and family-centered care, guided by the service standards of safety, respect, excellence, image and efficiency."

For "demonstrating a significant impact in areas related to the UAMS Mission, Vision, and Goals” — exceptional performance, excellent service, ingenuity, and high standards of leadership — the Institute for Digital Health & Innovation Brain Injury Program was honored with the Team Impact Award.

Demonstrating “a significant contribution to UAMS nursing, patient care, and the mission of UAMS,” Director of Nursing Research, Excellence, and Magnet Programs Rebekah Thacker, PhD(c), MNSc, RNC-NIC was awarded the Mary Helen Forrest Legacy in Nursing Award.

We would like to commend all 2025 nominees for the UAMS Auxiliary Awards of Excellence. Here at Auxiliary and across UAMS - University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, we recognize and take joy in the exceptional talent and dedication that distinguishes our institution’s unique professionals and teams!

05/02/2025

is grateful for our organization's community partners like Rock City Running.

Shown here are Rock City Running owner Bill Torrey with team members, who recently provided shoes to UAMS Auxiliary for patients in need of footwear. 👟

We truly appreciate all those who donate items, services, and time to our programs, and we recognize the contribution *all* our community partners make to the work of UAMS Auxiliary.⭐️💯

04/24/2025

We are so honored at the UAMS Office of Volunteer Engagement to have hosted such a vibrant, skilled, and spirited community of volunteer professionals for our 2025 Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon. These are some of the highlights from our annual gathering of volunteers, volunteer supervisors, and other stakeholders to celebrate National Volunteer Week and our volunteers' achievements.

This year's theme "Celebrating UAMS Volunteers: Superpowered for Service" highlighted volunteers' unique "service superpowers" as professionals serving our communities. We see our volunteers' gifts—all they are capable of, all they bring into their work—each day here at the Office of Volunteer Engagement, and we couldn't be more thrilled and inspired to join them on their service journeys!

We would like to extend our thanks to Capi Peck of the Little Rock Board of Directors (Ward 4) for joining this community celebration as keynote speaker, in honor of National Volunteer Week. Our sincere thanks as well to Dr. Thea Rosenbaum, Chief Quality & Clinical Transformation Officer for UAMS Health who contributed insights and encouragement to our luncheon gathering. And of course, thanks to all UAMS staff who assisted in making such an inspiring and fun event for our volunteer community possible.

Because *you* volunteer, .

04/20/2025

It's National Volunteer Week 2025! ✨🎉 "Celebrate Service. Volunteers Make a Difference."

🏥 At , we are celebrating ALL UAMS volunteers ALL week. 💙💛

Come by the Office of Volunteer Engagement each day for your gifts 🎁. Join us this week for opportunities to connect with our community of volunteer professionals.

It's time to celebrate *your* unique volunteer talents, and the difference each of you make with heartfelt acts of service all year 'round.

Because you volunteer, ! 😁

04/04/2025

In preparation for , UAMS Office of Volunteer Engagement spent some time in March exploring the benefits of volunteering FOR volunteers.

A comprehensive 2024 research article finds "a multitude of benefits of volunteering on mental, physical, and social health and well-being, particularly reduced mortality, and increased functioning, quality of life, pride, empowerment, motivation, social support, and sense of community."

Volunteer professionals know: those who give gain. Each day, we see how give back through acts of service to our communities, and how that work brings rewards to individual volunteers in turn.

Let us know in the comments, what are the rewards of volunteering you've seen in your own service experiences? 💬 And remember to add your voice to the global conversation, April 2-16: - exploring motivations for volunteer service worldwide this month!

Source: Nichol, B., Wilson, R., Rodrigues, A. et al. Exploring the Effects of Volunteering on the Social, Mental, and Physical Health and Well-being of Volunteers: An Umbrella Review. Voluntas 35, 97–128 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11266-023-00573-z