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VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH
Micah Johnson, Hurley’s Volunteer of the Month for August 2022, started volunteering when she saw the need during the height of the pandemic. “I was looking for a way to help out, and Hurley was the closest hospital. I looked into volunteering in the NICU, but they weren't accepting volunteers at the time because of COVID.” Despite her initial choice not being an option, she still wanted to help and ended up in the surgical lounge.
In that position, Micah acts as a liaison between the patients’ families and doctors. To start each day, she gets the schedule from the nurses’ station, sets up the lounge, and makes coffee. Throughout the day she does whatever needs to be done to help patients and their families have the best experience possible. That includes greeting everyone, finding out who they are here for, handing out coffee, adjusting the TV, walking families to recovery or patient rooms, and communicating updates from the doctors. She explains, “I love being there for the families. I do my best to make sure everyone is getting what they need, since it's not easy for them to be here, especially parents of little kids. And there are those here for emergency surgeries; the families don't necessarily know why their patient is here, and they can’t necessarily know all the details.”
Volunteering at Hurley is a small part of a very busy schedule for Micah. She’s also working for a group called STEMnetics this summer, where she teaches STEM subjects to kids in Flint elementary schools. This fall she has to head back to the University of Pennsylvania, where she is a premed student. Even with everything else on her plate, she still recommends volunteering at Hurley to others, “because I love the people that I work with, and it’s a very friendly environment. If you’re not sure how to help your community, Hurley is a great place to do that.”
Micah is spending the free time she has this summer with family and friends that she does not get to see during the school year. She is the oldest of four siblings, and she especially enjoys playing basketball with her younger sister. They also have a two year old black lab named Koda that loves to play.
Because of everything on her schedule, being named Volunteer of the Month came as a surprise to Micah. As she says, “I’m really happy. I’m only here for the summer, and only for the last month this summer. It feels good that I was making some sort of difference in people’s lives while I was here. I want to say thank you to Hurley for selecting me as Volunteer of the Month. I feel very honored, very happy.”
of the month
-Micah Johnson
"We are super lucky to have volunteers like Micah that jump right in to help with fresh, exciting energy.”
Director of Volunteer and Community Engagement
Jordan E. Brown, MBA
