Beneficial Buys

BY ANGELA WOODFORD - Special Correspondent
Published: July 28, 2008

Perusing the hospital gift shop is a brighter experience for shoppers armed with this Richmond secret: Many shops donate proceeds to both internal and community-wide health-care programs.

The gift shop at HCA Retreat Hospital in Richmond’s Fan District is operated and staffed by a 30-plus-member volunteer group called the Board for Women’s Health.

Volunteer Joan Morecroft said that, in good years, the shop raises about $50,000 for women’s health programs. The board has donated money to these causes: Virginia Commonwealth University’s Massey Cancer Center Magical Touch wig and headwear program; equipment for forensic nurses at Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital; Safe Harbor domestic violence program; Legal Information Network for Cancer; and Cross Over Ministries health promotion program for women inmates at the Richmond City jail.

“Meeting people who run those organizations and meeting people who’ve been helped by those organizations is perhaps the most rewarding part of it,” Morecroft said.

Plus, HCA’s Johnston-Willis and Chippenham campuses of the CJW Medical Center donate a portion of gift-shop proceeds to a volunteer scholarship program. At HCA’s John Randolph Medical Center in Hopewell, the gift shop funds student scholarships and area rescue squads.

At Virginia Commonwealth University, the money raised by the Medical College of Virginia gift shop funds various hospital equipment and programs. Three Bon Secours hospitals – St. Francis, St. Mary’s and Memorial Regional – also have volunteer-run gift shops that fund patient care by purchasing items such as beds, televisions and medical equipment.