I don't think our kids know what an apron is.

The principal use of Grandma's apron was to protect the dress underneath because she only had a few.  It was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children's tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.  From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.  And when the weather was cold, grandma wrapped it around her arms.  Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.  Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow, bent over the hot wood stove.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.  In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.  When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the men knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

-Karen

With great prizes at stake, the many entries we received for the Sassy Scrubs Blogging Contest were diverse and creative.  Sassy Scrubs was honored to award our Grand Prize to one of the most interesting and touching stories that we received.  Anne Johnston, Corporate Writer/Marketing Coordinator for the Office of Corporate Communications at Thompson Health in Canandaigua, New York, told us about a program at her facility, instituted to help their nurses.  Anne won the Grand Prize and used her $250 Sassy Gift Certificate to help stock the shelves of the Scrubs Loan Closet.

We extend our congratulations to Anne and encourage you to read more about the fabulous FF Thompson Scrubs Loan Closet below.

Guest article – Anne Johnston
Corporate Writer/Marketing Coordinator for the Office of Corporate Communications at Thompson Health in Canandaigua, NY

Scrubs Loan Closet Gets Off the Ground

After gasoline, groceries and regular monthly bills are taken care of these days, some folks find that there’s not much left in their bank accounts.  Now, any Thompson Associates who find themselves in those shoes, even temporarily, have one less expense to worry about.

That’s thanks to the new Scrubs Loan Closet, a program created by Thompson’s Nursing Work-Life Council to ensure that the prospect of a uniform doesn’t present a hardship for anyone. If you’re not familiar with it, the Nursing Work-Life Council was created as part of the Magnet designation process to address quality of work life issues for nurses.  “The program is based solely on donations from people who work here,” says Cristine Crawford, an RN in the Birthing Center who is on the council and helped organize the program.  The need for the loan closet was identified through Associate Services, where staff sometimes sense that new hires who are required to wear scrubs cannot afford to buy their own.

“Before you get that first paycheck, it’s kind of hard to go out and purchase some,” Cristine says.  “Scrubs are not cheap.”

Deborah Gollus, Senior Recruiter, agrees. “If they’re coming from a non-healthcare background or a healthcare background with a different uniform requirement, it can be a burden,” she says.  Associate Services brought the issue to the attention of the Work-Life Council, which got the program up and running on October 1, using a space in the corner of the 2 West conference room.

To stock the closet, Cristine sent out a MOX to fellow Associates. “The initial response was very good so there’s probably a lot more out there,” Cristine says, noting that she plans to send out occasional reminders.  As of early this month, the closet featured scrubs of all sizes, both prints and solid colors. “We definitely could use some more smalls. We could use more of all sizes, actually,” Cristine says.  Associates – whether they are new or having a hard time making ends meet – are welcome to help themselves to the closet’s contents at any time. “We didn’t want people to feel like they had to ask,” Cristine says.

The council asks that each person needing scrubs takes a maximum of two sets.
If the people who benefit from the closet are able to donate the uniforms back to the closet in the future after they are able to purchase their own, it will keep the program going, Cristine says.

-Karen