CHARLESTON, W.Va. — With Veterans Day just a week away, the CAMC/Vandalia Health system in the Capital City is paying its respects.
In an annual tradition, healthcare workers gathered together outside CAMC General Hospital and CAMC Memorial Hospital on Wednesday for flag-raising ceremonies. During those events, a CAMC worker who served in the military gets honored.
Heidi Edwards, CAMC General Hospital chief administrative officer and chief nursing officer, told MetroNews that it’s a patriotic event.
“(It’s) an opportunity for us to come together and recognize and honor our veterans through the flag raising ceremony,” Edwards said. “So in that, we retire a flag, and every year we honor a veteran from within General Hospital.”
Just a couple hours later, they held a similar ceremony at CAMC Memorial Hospital.
CAMC/Vandalia Health Director of Volunteer Services Kelly Anderson said the idea was hatched ten years ago by the volunteer auxiliary group. She said they identified there wasn’t a veterans-honoring ceremony at CAMC, in addition to not having an event to retire the current flags.
“They started this tradition, and it’s an annual tradition where the flag that’s been flying in front of General Hospital is retired and given to a CAMC workforce member, who’s also a veteran on behalf of all of the workforce members,” Anderson explained.
Edwards said these are fitting events for those who have bravely served the country.
“Within the walls, every single day, we care for many veterans,” Edwards said. “Within those walls, we also have many veterans giving of others, and they have that same caring theme that they’re willing to give up themselves, their time, to care for others and improve their health.”
The National Anthem was performed by local barbershop group Music Medics. They’re a subgroup of the Kanawha Chorusmen, within the Greater Kanawha Valley Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society. He said the society’s mission is ‘everyone in harmony.’
James Walther is one of the singers in the group. He said there was a unique way for them to get involved.
“We come down to Women and Children’s Hospital every Saturday morning, and sing to the kids and families up in fifth-floor pediatrics,” Walther said. “Hospital staff heard us. I guess we had a patient, one time we request a national anthem. Somebody heard that, and Kelly (Anderson) invited us to come for this ceremony.”
Anderson said everything came together so well.
“It’s a lovely time for veterans to come together and for even ROTC,” Anderson said. “That’s a nice way to get them involved in the process as well. We always have the National Anthem and Pledge of Allegiance, and those are things we don’t do as much anymore, as I think we should, and so it’s a great recognition and honor for the veterans in our country.”
At CAMC General Hospital, St. Albans native Steve Guthrie was honored. He joined the West Virginia Air National Guard in 1986, beginning his career with the 130th Airlift Wing. He retired in 2010 after 24 years of service, including time spent overseas.
Guthrie now works for CAMC; he began in 2011.
Anderson said it’s veterans like Guthrie that are so important to highlight and recognize.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for us that probably often gets missed, that our veterans, once they retire from military service, they go into civilian service,” Anderson said. “We have lots of veterans that work among us, and I think they go unnoticed for the most part. This has been an opportunity for us to just kind of highlight and honor the service that they’ve given, not only to the hospital, but also especially to the military, their careers.”
Anderson hopes that these events can serve as a great reminder for everyone in the CAMC/Vandalia system.
“I just love that we are able to take a pause in the middle of the craziness of hospital life for staff to be able to come down and just for a moment of silence, recognize the country that we live in, honor the flag and our veterans that have served us so well that allow us to be in such a great place and live our lives comfortably because of them,” she said.