Today, 58 years and more than 18,500 hours later, Joyce still volunteers at age 86 – now in the Emergency Department at ORMC where she has been since 1980. For her, the job she performs is a labor of love at what she affectionately refers to as ‘her hospital.’

Joyce also loves the staff she works with, whom she calls her second family and credits for helping her get through the passing of her husband George four years ago. This November, Joyce and George would have celebrated 60 years together. George was also an active volunteer, often offering his carpentry skills at the Orlando Health Foundation. In 2002, Joyce and George partnered with Orlando Health to create the Joyce G. Sorn Nursing Scholarship to provide financial assistance to nursing students.

Joyce’s interest in healthcare started when she was just a teenager and was recommended to fill an open nurse aide job due to the influx of nurses being sent overseas during WWII. She took a two-week intensive nurses training course that would help her in her job and later as a volunteer.

In addition to volunteering at Orlando Health, Joyce has also served as the President of the Women’s Auxiliary (now Volunteer Services), Chairman of the Candy Stripers and on the One Night Trauma Committee, which helped raise awareness and funds for the ORMC Level One Trauma Center.

Orlando Health is grateful to all our volunteers for their dedication and generosity in giving their time. It is people like Joyce who demonstrate the significant and positive impact volunteers have on our hospitals, patients and community.

“I like to say that I don’t work by the hour, but I work by the job,” explains Joyce. “My favorite job is talking to the patients and hearing about their families and loved ones. I have a new friend and they have a new friend. I have spent time doing anything from rocking babies to sitting with family members of patients and I can’t think of doing anything else.”