Looking Back: OHH celebrates 10th year of Auxiliary shop

The Atrium at Olney Hamilton Hospital, the gift shop operated by the OHH Auxiliary, celebrates its 10th anniversary and continues to be run entirely by volunteers. The gift shop opened on July 15, 2013 after months of hard work and help from community members including Anita Palmer and Carla Perry, Auxiliary President Phyllis Whitsett recalled recently.

The shop was built in an atrium dedicated to hospital founder Dr. George Hamilton, and takes its name from that space. “It took awhile to convince Mrs. [Kathrine] Atchley to let us have that space because that was her atrium. She had her plants in there,” Mrs. Whitsett said. “The plants weren’t doing well and it wasn’t looking really pretty so she realized it was in the wrong place so she more or less relented and said you can build it here.”

The all-volunteer shop has stayed open six days a week for a decade mainly because of the fun that Auxiliary members have serving hospital staff, patients and visitors, she said.

“We have had some wonderful ladies who are elderly and some have died. We always talk about when so-and-so was here we had so much fun,” she said. “It’s like an extended family.”

Auxiliary member Donna Sullivan buys for the shop and has “some of the neatest Christmas stuff in there right now,” she said.

“We have a really good response from our hospital staff … it is really convenient for them,” she said. “The community may be missing out because we have things coming in all the time.”

The Atrium at Hamilton Hospital is open Monday-Friday from 9 a.m.-noon and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Check out their Christmas gift selection.