RCH Foundation Receives Grant from Disney for Volunteer Nomination

At the nomination of a Redlands Community Hospital (RCH) volunteer, the Redlands Community Hospital Foundation will receive a grant from the Walt Disney Company Foundation to purchase a golf cart for patient and visitor transportation. RCH uses golf carts to transport people from its large parking lot to the building. This service benefits many of the hospital's visitors, including Joe Pompa, a part-time firefighter at Disneyland who nominated the hospital for the Walt Disney Company Foundation grant. "The golf cart service greatly benefited my family when we visited my 83-year-old father in hospital for a month," said Pompa, a volunteer shuttle driver at RCH. "The experience pushed me to volunteer at the hospital, and I've been doing it for three years now. I realized how much it helped my elderly mother get from her car to the front doors of the hospital, and I knew that it was something that benefited a lot of other patients and visitors as well." Pompa's daughter has volunteered in the hospital's Labor and Delivery Department for four years, which initially sparked Pompa's interest in volunteer work at the hospital. Founded in 1980, the Redlands Community Hospital Foundation was created to raise funds to contribute to the hospital for special projects that directly impact the quality of care for hospital patients. Volunteers play a vital role in many areas including: transportation, admitting, the gift shop, nursing units, pharmacy, information desks, emergency services, outpatient service areas, clerical areas, and even lend a hand in fundraising through quilting and sewing. To nominate organizations for a grant through the Walt Disney Company Foundation, a person must donate at least $50 to the organization, entering it into consideration for a monetary grant. In the past, Pompa has also nominated fellow firefighters and Inland Harvest, a Redlands food bank organization, for a grant through the Walt Disney Company Foundation.