Every week day for nearly two years, LaGina Rene Bines made it her mission to create a welcoming and comforting environment at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. Bines, who passed away earlier this summer, was the smiling face that warmly greeted patients and visitors, and the encouraging team player who started the day by wishing staff a good morning and ended her shift with hugs and high-fives.
“She was one of our best volunteers and in a lot of ways became my assistant,” said Naimah Cann, Volunteer Services coordinator. “She was always there to help, always ready to make the day the best it could be, and always the first to sign up for events. All of my volunteers are wonderful, but we’re really feeling this void.”
Born on Christmas, Bines fittingly established herself as “a gift” to PPMC’s volunteer program, and her compassion earned her special recognition during this year’s Volunteer Appreciation Week. In addition to visiting patient rooms with the HeArt Cart, Bines went above and beyond her typical volunteer duties by bringing food to patients in the ED waiting room, designing signs to promote the volunteer program, and planning events. Her unexpected passing came not long after a pilot program that she designed had been approved — “uplifting spirits” and boosting patients’ self-esteem by filing their nails, brushing and braiding their hair, and helping them feel less like a patient and more like themselves.
Her dedication did not go unnoticed by patients, staff, or fellow volunteers — including Isaac, one of the Presby Pooches. While she never had a dog, Bines enthusiastically took on the role of party planner to celebrate Isaac’s birthday and to show appreciation of his service to the hospital. “It turned out to be one of the best parties that we’ve ever had,” Cann said. “It might sound silly to some that she put in this much effort into a dog’s birthday, but it meant something to her because Isaac was her teammate.” While Bines was unable to see the party come to fruition, her presence was felt in everything that she had lovingly prepared, from the balloons to the birthday card.
Bines was committed to helping others feel seen and supported, whether by being a “beacon of light” for lonely patients at PPMC, providing meals to homeless individuals in her community, or staffing Penn Medicine CAREs outreach events. Her legacy lives on, as her example inspired more than a dozen of her friends, grandchildren, and people at her church and apartment building to sign up as PPMC volunteers.
“I had the opportunity to work with someone who had really dedicated their life to changing others’ lives,” Cann said. “She touched so many hearts and made such an impact on the staff, on our patients, on the community. You meet a lot of wonderful volunteers, but LaGina set the bar really high.”