Wheaton volunteer devotes 48 years to convalescent center

Among the longtime volunteers at the DuPage County Convalescent Center, none have been giving their time as long as Winnie Blewitt.

The 92-year-old Wheaton woman has been volunteering at the nursing and rehabilitation facility for 48 years. Nearly the entire time, she has been devoting a day each week to helping the center's residents with their ceramics projects.

“Winnie was volunteering before we had a volunteer program,” said Shauna Berman, the center's manager of resident and volunteer services.

Following a friend's suggestion, Blewitt began her tenure at the Wheaton facility as a friendship visitor. She would spend time talking and playing checkers with residents.

Then another volunteer who wanted to start a ceramics program asked Blewitt to be a part of it.

“I knew nothing about ceramics,” Blewitt recalled. “But she said, ‘All you need is two hands.' So I started and stayed with it — and I have enjoyed it.”

Blewitt has been a volunteer at the convalescent center longer than the career span of every employee there. And none of the residents have stayed there as long.

Center staff members say Blewitt's longevity as a volunteer has helped the facility fulfill its mission “to help residents do as much as they can, as well as they can, for as long as they can.”

Michelle Kohout, a recreation therapy coordinator at the center, said Blewitt is good with the residents and makes a point of getting to know all of them.

“They love her,” Kohout said. “She's very thoughtful and compassionate with them, and they respond to that. They see her as a friend and not just a volunteer.”

Berman said Blewitt's commitment to the ceramics program has helped it continue, even when staff had to be cut several years ago for budget reasons.

“She never stopped,” Berman said. “She kept coming as a volunteer and worked when there was no staff there overseeing her directly.”

Blewitt said one of the reasons she keeps doing her Monday morning shifts is for the exercise. Part of her job is to push residents in wheelchairs to and from the ceramics class.

“I feel perfectly strong to push the wheelchairs around,” said Blewitt, who also plays tennis twice a week. “Exercise is what keeps me going.”

Blewitt's energy impresses Kohout, who has worked with her for four years.

“It constantly amazes me that this woman who is smaller than me — and I'm pretty small — is running around all over the building and pushing these giant wheelchairs,” Kohout said. ”You couldn't stop her if you tried.”

Blewitt has used her contacts in the community to enlist new volunteers to assist at the center. Some of her recruits have been volunteering there for more than 20 years, officials said.

She said the most rewarding part of volunteering at the center is getting to know the residents.

“Hopefully, I'm bringing a little bit of sunshine into their life,” she said.