Honoring Mainstays of the Operation

Ashleigh Acker, 18, has logged 225 hours over the past three summers.

For a decade, Sandy Montgomery, 48, hasn’t missed a week.

And Audrey Hollander, at 77, has done it for 40 years.

They are all volunteers at Orthopaedic Hospital, a private, not-for-profit downtown facility founded in 1922 by physician Charles LeRoy Lowman.

Last week, about 160 volunteers were honored by the hospital’s president and medical director, James V. Luck Jr., and his staff.

The setting was the opening night of the stage musical “The King and I.” Volunteers and their guests packed Hollywood’s opulent Pantages Theatre for a night of recognition.

Luck’s orders were clear: “No volunteering tonight,” as the tables were turned and the volunteers were treated like royalty from, well, Siam.

Before they saw Marie Osmond and Victor Talmade in the lead roles of Anna Leonowens and the King of Siam, they sipped red and white wine. They dined on chicken sate, homemade crostina pasta and toasted pita triangles, cheeses and various desserts.

They mixed and mingled. Two and three generations of volunteers toasted each other. Others shared stories about how they got their start at Orthopaedic. And there was plenty of finger counting as they compared years of service: Laura Wiltgen has clocked 5,496 hours through the years; Mary Lou Hamblet, 4,619; M. Teresa Quesada, 1,500; and Robert Mills, a whopping 12,326.

Bernice Habers Runyan has been a volunteer for 31 years--and on this night she was honored with the hospital’s prestigious Dan Wachner Award, named for the late volunteer’s extraordinary work. The Wachner award was established in 1992, a year after the hospital floor host died. Every Wednesday, Wachner wrote letters for patients, read them newspaper articles and played cards, chess and other games with adults and children. He was known for his sense of humor; he always had riddles and jokes to share.

The annual award is presented to a volunteer “who rings true to the qualities that Dan had,” said Linda Corrente, director of volunteers and community relations.

Wachner’s widow, Ruth, presented the award to Runyan, 85, known to many as “the Unsinkable Bea Runyan.”

The announcement was met with whistles and applause.

“Bea is the heart and soul of Orthopaedic Hospital and the only volunteer who was here every Monday at 6 a.m.,” said Eloise Helwig, president of the hospital’s foundation, which raises money to support the research, education and charity care at the facility, once known as the Crippled Children’s Hospital.

The hospital is a treatment and teaching center for adults with disorders affecting bones, joints, muscles and connective tissue. It is also the major regional referral center for pediatric orthopaedic disabilities, including birth defects, hemophilia, spina bifida, scoliosis and skeletal cancer. The hospital operates clinics in Long Beach, Bakersfield and Calexico, the latter under the leadership of Orthopaedic’s International Children’s Program.

Runyan, who has been away from the hospital for about a year because of health problems and will be back soon, worked the front information desk for many years--”and wherever else I have been needed. I volunteer for the children. I just love the children, and I’d like to do more for them,” she said.

So would others, such as younger volunteers Acker, a senior at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, and Lauren Rhodes, 17, a junior at the same school.

Acker, who has volunteered for three years, said the experience has been “a real wake-up call. I’m in touch with real people, doing something important, something that matters. I’ve learned that you take less for granted.”

Rhodes said that she’d like to see more young adults among her ranks and that one doesn’t have to sacrifice a social life to volunteer.

“I think everyone has the ability to be a volunteer. You just have to know how to balance and prioritize,” she said.

Luck said he is grateful for volunteers, ages 14 to 90, who have devoted countless hours staffing the information desk, the Daisy Gift Shop or It’s a Bargain Thrift Store.

Rina Falcone sings for patients.

Candi Gershuni has a knack for making people feel at ease.

And Laura Sanson is at the hospital “come hell or high water, or should we say hell or high Nin~o?”

Said Luck: “They provide an atmosphere of support and a positive environment for the children who come from all over the world. Orthopaedic Hospital owes its existence to volunteers. They give of their time, and most important, they give their hearts.”