GAIL WHITE Women's Board has longtime tradition of service

"Your interest ... prompts me, on this Memorial Day 1964, to write you a letter about the Women's Board of the Youngstown Hospital Association."
Oscar F. Gayton of Youngstown was writing to friends and associates after the death of his wife. His words speak profoundly of his love for his wife and the respect he had for the volunteer work she performed.
"I am writing because Youngstown should know more about these people [Women's Board] and also I am writing because it gives me a chance to talk about my Rebecca, Rebecca Fordyce Gayton," Oscar's letter continued.
"This story is from the husband of a lady who was typical of the ladies who make up the Board. I am going to tell about the Woman's Board as I have heard and lived it these last 33 years."
Even today, Youngstown knows little about this active group of 30 volunteers known as the Woman's Board of the Forum Health Care System, though every resident of the Valley has undoubtedly been touched by their work that spans a century.
"The object of the Woman's Board is to elevate the standards of the hospitals by keeping in close personal touch with every department of the institutions and working for their betterment," Oscar explained in his love letter about his wife and her charitable work.
Early efforts
"Who in Youngstown knows how the furnishings get into the hospitals? Or how the draperies are selected, the chairs, tables, lamps, pictures, rugs? And who paid for a good share of them? The Woman's Board," Oscar wrote.
A chrysanthemum show sponsored by the Woman's Board in 1887 netted $4,000, a tidy sum in that day.
"In 1952, an antique auction sale raised $7,000," Oscar recalled in his letter. "But just about wrecked the homes of the members. Many of the husbands bought back their own cherished possessions."
Such fund-raising events furnished much of the furniture and linens in the early hospitals.
"The Woman's Board bought the first pajamas for the patients," said Jeanne Taylor of Girard, a current Woman's Board member.
Today, the fund-raising efforts of the Woman's Board have changed a bit. The board raises most of its funds through the Northside Medical Center gift shop, hospital flower vending machines and baby picture sales.
Yet, their focus of maintaining superior hospital standards has never changed. Currently, the board is refurbishing the Women's Health Clinic on Gypsy Lane. But redecorating is not their only concern.
"We inspect the hospitals every month," said board member Gretchen Birrell of Girard.
In her footsteps
A daughter of Oscar and Rebecca Gayton, Birrell has continued the legacy of her mother. This is Birrell's 34th year on the Women's Board.
"I go into the bathrooms and check if they are clean. I talk to the patients and ask them how the food is," she said.
"We give our findings to the hospital officials," said Jacquelyn Brauninger of Hubbard, Women's Board president. "We report leaky faucets, wet ceiling tiles, the need for new curtains or furnishings."
Often, along with their report, the board will provide the repair or refurbishing.
"I hate to think of the hours we've put in," said Taylor, who has been a board member for nearly 30 years. "I consider myself a professional volunteer."
"I call myself a perennial volunteer," Brauninger added.
Certainly, these bright, energetic women and those who served before them could have pursued a career or spent their time on selfish endeavors.
"All the members give a great deal of time, effort and money," Oscar eloquently wrote nearly four decades ago.
Times have changed, but his words still ring true today about the Woman's Board: "They do it quietly, but Youngstown should know of this contribution to our city."
gwhite@vindy.com