OREM — Don't look for Pink Ladies at Timpanogos Regional Hospital. You won't find one.
Kenney Jolley, who volunteers at the hospital with his wife, Pam, insisted from the beginning to wear some other color.
"I was a 'Maroon Man,' " said Jolley. "No way I was going to wear pink."
Now, as he heads to the hospital for his shift, he puts on a hunter green polo shirt and khaki slacks. So does his wife.
They're part of a growing number of hospital volunteers who are shedding the pink jackets that have been worn for 50 years by the folks who volunteer at medical centers.
"We started to realize we have lots of different kinds of volunteers," said Jacque Brown, a spokeswoman for the hospital, which is the first in Utah County to change the color of the volunteer uniform.
"We have a mother-daughter team, a pair of sisters. We're seeing a lot of college-age guys," Brown said.
Kelly Anderson, volunteer director at Timpanogos Hospital, said the national volunteer organization has asked all U.S. chapters to change the uniform color in time for the coming year, which is the "Year of the Volunteer."
Anderson said Timpanogos started making the color adjustment in October — and there's been a little resistance.
"One lady just could not do it," she said. "She quit rather than give up the jacket."
Anderson said most of the 70-plus volunteer staff has quietly accepted the wardrobe change.
"We chose not to go with the metallic silver, which is available but might have caused more problems," she said. "The green is a color that looks good on everybody."
The volunteers at Timpanogos provide more than 10,000 hours in service annually, staffing the gift shop, running the information desks and manning a patient cart loaded with magazines, videos and books.
They make the Christmas stockings for newborns during December, the cough pillows and the blankets that provide an extra touch of caring for the patients.
The new shirts are emblazoned with letters that spell out the wearer is a volunteer and can be asked for help.
The color change may confuse hospital visitors for awhile. Anderson wants to make every effort to minimize the difficulty.
"The pink jackets stand for volunteer," she said. "We know that. We're really doing away with an era."
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