CHARLESTON, W.Va. — At 93 years old, Lorella Boggess, of Charleston, calls herself “a true volunteer.”
Boggess has volunteered many places almost her entire life. For nearly 20 years, she has worked at the front desk at the Charleston Area Medical Center Women and Children’s Hospital.
“I’m a people watcher and I like to talk to people,” said Boggess, “I like my job.”
Boggess is a Cabin Creek native who moved to Charleston around 30 years ago. She retired as a school guidance counselor at Chesapeake elementary in 1984.
As a teenager, she taught Sunday school classes, but did not consider herself a volunteer until years later when she started to help a telephone program called “Contact.”
“I didn’t really like that too well,” she said, “I like to work with people. I like be with people and to interact with people and that was on the telephone. I couldn’t see who I was talking to.”
Afterwards, Boggess volunteered at the Ronald McDonald House in Kanawha City for 10 years.
“They had an open house on Wednesday and I started that Thursday,” she said.
Being a committed volunteer, she said she loved her time at Ronald McDonald, but was searching for more. She was looking for a place she could connect more with people in the area, so she came to CAMC.
Currently, she is the first face people see as they walk into the hospital. Part of her job is to deliver flowers or gifts to patients and to guide visitors in the right direction after they enter the building.
“It makes you feel good to be able to make them feel welcomed and just to see a little bit of relief on their face when they know that there’s somebody here who is going to show them where to go,” she said.
Boggess said volunteering is important to her because it makes her feel like she is doing something to help other people.
“I also have the time to give to kind of lighten the load on other people who have a job,” she said.
Boggess is unable to drive, so she said that limits her volunteer time to one day a week at the hospital.
“At 93 I’m not as active as I was at 70,” she joked, “My co-worker does a lot of the leg work and I tell her I just sit there, talk to people, and smile.”
Boggess lives at Edgewood Summit, a senior living community, where she also participates in events around Charleston. She said anyone can offer their time, almost anywhere. She said it is the best way to spend her time and and could not be more proud of her years of service.