Giving Back Matters

You Left Behind
Almost fifty years ago St. Charles resident Fred Norris
graduated from college on a Friday and married his
college sweetheart Ginny the very next day. “Back then, we
were not in much of a hurry,” he laughs. Fred and Ginny
Norris went on to share 47 years together, adding three
children and three grandchildren to their family along the way.
It was only after Ginny died at age 67 that the family who
spent so many happy years together, was forced to learn how
to live without its matriarch. In order to do so, Fred focused
on finding a way to keep his wife’s memory alive.
“I wanted to give a gift to the hospital that would represent
the many hours she spent volunteering,” he says. “And when
I thought of the Delnor Auxiliary, I realized that her active
involvement in that group was one of the most important
aspects of her life.”
Ginny spent her life giving back to the community she lived
in, including volunteering as a Brownie mom, in her children’s
schools, and at the hospital. But it was her efforts as part of
the Delnor Auxiliary that Fred says was her special passion.
“She poured herself into the hospital once the kids were all in
school,” he remembers. “She was membership chair, chair of
the Charity Ball and eventually president,” he says.
Even Fred has fond memories of Delnor Auxiliary work. “You
don’t really know what it means to be an Auxiliary member
until you are married to one of them,” he says with a laugh.
He recalls working with other Auxiliary
spouses to decorate and cleanup the sites of
the Auxiliary annual Charity Ball.
“One year we started working at 1 a.m.
setting up at Pheasant Run once another
event had ended,” says Fred. “After we were
done we went home and took a shower, then
came back to party the rest of the evening. I
hadn’t felt that tired, or that alive, since my
college days!”
It was an energy that Ginny had felt as
well. “She just loved the camaraderie…girls
call it sisterhood…but it was a very close
relationship with all of those ladies who worked together for
the good of Delnor and the community,” says Fred. “I have
never seen such energy. None of them thought twice about
the amount of time they put in because they were so energized
by what they were doing as a team.”
Currently, the Delnor Auxiliary fundraising goal is to raise one
million dollars in support of Delnor’s digital mammography
program. At the same time that Fred was considering his
memorial gift for Ginny, the hospital was opening a new
state-of-the-art Center for Breast Health that would
incorporate those digital mammography services.
“It just seemed like the perfect time — I had a phenomenal
opportunity to add to the Auxiliary’s support of breast health
services at Delnor, and to make Ginny part of this new center,”
he says. Fred decided to gift the Center for Breast Health with
an inspiring art glass wall for its lobby in Ginny’s name.
“It is for Ginny and for all of those ladies who spent, and
continue to spend, so many volunteer hours at the hospital,”
says Fred. “It is dedicated to all of them; they are such an
important part of the Delnor family.”
Fred and his family watched as the art glass wall, designed by
an artist in Arizona, went through many conceptions before
its completion. “It was wonderful to watch it come into reality,
both the wall and the entire breast center concept,” he says.
“Even though our part in it is just a small amenity, we hope that
it will help the women who visit the Center
for Breast Health feel calmer when they
are dealing with apprehension.”
And he says that the gift of the wall,
bearing Ginny’s name, makes it possible
to keep her memory alive. “We want to
make sure as a family that she is not
forgotten,” says Fred. “You are only
gone when you are not remembered. This
makes it possible for her grandkids and
great grandkids to go there someday and
see that she left her fingerprints on the
hospital.”