This 89-year-old has volunteered almost 10,000 hours at a local hospital
He has no plans of stopping anytime soon.
On Wednesday mornings at 8 a.m. sharp, Clellan Bunn can be found transporting patients through the halls of Winchester Hospital.
It’s where he’s been almost every Wednesday morning for the past 25 years.
Bunn, who is the longest tenured volunteer in the radiology department and one of the longest-tenured volunteers at the Lahey Health-affiliated hospital, is about to celebrate two major milestones: He’ll soon complete 10,000 volunteer hours at the hospital. And he’ll turn 90 on Tuesday.
“A lot [of patients] are surprised when I first come into their room and ask me my age, believe it or not,” Bunn said. “I don’t mind telling them my age though, and they look at me all surprised that I’m still transporting. Most of the people I’m transporting are younger than I am.”
Bunn first started volunteering for the radiology department in January 1991 after retiring from working in a warehouse in Wilmington. His late wife, who was a case manager at the hospital at the time, mentioned the department was looking for volunteers.
“When I retired from work, I wanted to do something useful,” he said. “I’ve been doing it ever since and will continue to do so.”
Since then, Bunn has volunteered one to two days per week each week, pushing patients in stretchers and wheelchairs to and from the radiology department. In earlier years, Bunn took on day-long shifts for as many as five days a week, said Marcia Hunt, manager of Radiology at the hospital.
“Clellan is the most dedicated volunteer we’ve had, ever,” she said.
Bunn said one of his favorite aspects of volunteering is getting to socialize with patients.
“It makes me feel good,” he said. “I try to know whether they like to talk or don’t to try to make them comfortable, but I especially like talking with the older people. They seem to be more chatty than the other ones.”
Bunn said he also tries to comfort patients the best he can, especially those who have lost loved ones—something he can relate to after the deaths of his wife and one of his sons, Rick.
“There was one man who also lost his wife and Clellan noticed he started to become sad and depressed,” Lahey Health spokesman Dan Marra recalled. “So, he started calling this man up every once in a while, just to check in and eventually started inviting him to lunch to try and cheer him up.”
Over his 25 years of service, Hunt said Bunn has earned what would be a jacket full of pins and badges for each volunteer hour benchmark he’s surpassed, but patients would never know it. He’s returned each of them to the volunteer office.
“I’m not in it for the glory,” Bunn said. “It’s the right thing for me to be doing and I’m going to keep doing it.”
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com