About 85 members make up an organization known as Auxiliary that serves day-after-day to assist Merit Health River Region in various departments.

Former outgoing president Ann Morris said the organization was formerly known as Pink Ladies, but became co-ed several years back. About five of the volunteers now are men.

“The Sisters of Mercy started the auxiliary at the Mercy Hospital in 1959, and that’s when it was Pink Ladies,” she said. “Somewhere along the line when Louise Larson was president, her husband Bill became the first male volunteer. I would imagine that was sometime back in the ’70s.”

Morris said she never volunteered with Mercy Hospital, but she did work with Vicksburg Hospital, which started its auxiliary in 1972. That auxiliary became co-ed in the ‘80s.

“My husband was in so many different hospitals with back surgeries, and there were so many volunteers,” she said. “I said, ‘One of these day, I’m going to do that.’”

Morris said she’s been involved ever since.

Volunteers work at the front desk, in the gift shop, diagnostics, the intensive care unit, cardiology and ambulatory surgery.

Outgoing president Shirley Doyle said one of the duties an Auxiliary member may have is to meet and greet families and friends in the intensive care unit.

Doyle said when she moved to Vicksburg 10 years ago from Alabama, she didn’t know many people other than her daughter, her husband and people at her church.

“I knew I wanted to join the auxiliary to meet people and to serve,” she said. “I’ve been a member for 10 years. It keeps me out of trouble.”

The auxiliary has two jewelry sales each year, in the spring and in the fall, Morris said.

“We have a scholarship committee and a scholarship fund,” she said. “Every penny that we get from those jewelry sales goes into that scholarship fund.”

The organization has been able to give eight seniors from the four local high schools at least a $1,500 a year scholarship if they are going into the field of medicine, Morris said.

Doyle said the Auxiliary also gives a $1,500 scholarship to a Miss Mississippi contestant who is going into the field of medicine.

Morris said from their general fund they are able to give to the CAP Center, the United Way, the food pantry, Good Shepherd and the free clinic. The organization is also able to supply gifts to about 30 children involved with the Salvation Army’s Angel Tree program.

“We meet bimonthly,” she said. “We usually have a speaker at our meetings, and we have a brunch. We have a lot of camaraderie, and we love it.”

The group is always looking for more members, Morris said.

For more information about auxiliary call Leigh White at 601-883-6118.