Ginger Bigalke Remains Active Volunteer

Ginger Bigalke has worked thousands of hours in two stints with the Stone County Medical Center Auxiliary and continues to volunteer weekly, donning the distinctive red smock.

Auxiliary members have varied duties including greeting – and comforting, if necessary – patients and visitors, operating the gift shop, labeling equipment and supplies, and organizing patients on days specialists hold clinics at the hospital.

When they have fundraising raffles she sells most of the tickets.

She enjoys her shift every Thursday when she is able to be in the lobby and greet people – saying hello to those who know their way around, or offering guidance to those who need it. She might offer to deliver a cup of coffee, or simply be present with someone who is having to wait. Her no-nonsense manner can be an attribute on busy days.

An employee at SCMC described her as a “spitfire” and said she keeps everyone straight.

Ginger, who will be 94 this year, said in a 2022 interview that volunteering is very satisfying and gives her purpose.

“It’s a way to give back and get to know people,” she says. “There’s a lot of kindness in this community.”

Ginger was the third youngest of 12 Klaver children, and after her mother died in childbirth with the last, the youngest five were sent to an orphanage in their home state of Wisconsin. When the facility was taken over by the state and children parceled out, one of Ginger’s older sisters took her in, then she went to another sister’s, and finally to a third in Ohio, all in one year.

After that, she lived with a friend for a time, and moved with her to Chicago where she worked at a Brillo plant.

She doesn’t remember either of her parents, but she saw her father in his coffin after he died on her 16th birthday. At the funeral, a brother asked her, “what are you bawling about, you didn’t even know him.” And she replied that was the reason she was crying. Her sister Katherine advised her, “Save your tears, kid, you’ve got a hard life coming. Don’t ever feel sorry for yourself. It’s a little person who feels sorry for themselves.”

She had moved so often her schooling was irregular. Schools would test her to see where she should be placed.

“They still don’t know where to put me,” she commented with a wry grin.

Read the full story in the July 24 issue.