I recently started volunteering at St. Luke\u2019s Anderson Campus.<\/p>\n
I push a coffee cart around and hand out snacks and fun-size chocolates. Peppermint Patties seem to be the favorite. I spend a few hours a week walking through waiting rooms and floors, smiling at people, offering coffee, and thanking staff members for what they do every day.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s basically the job. So, why can\u2019t I stop thinking about it?<\/p>\n
One morning, I offered a Peppermint Patty to a member of the janitorial team as he walked by. He smiled politely and said, “No, thank you.” A young guy nearby \u2014 he couldn\u2019t have been more than 21 \u2014 watched the interaction and casually said to me, \u201cYou\u2019re very kind.\u201d<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think anyone has ever really described me as kind before. Or if they did, I never internalized it. People have called me funny, easygoing, nice enough. At work, they say I\u2019m fast. But kind? I don\u2019t know that I ever saw myself that way.<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t that I don\u2019t do kind things. I do. But kindness always felt like something different to me, less about specific acts and more about the feeling a person leaves behind. You know it when you\u2019re around it. Some people have a warmth that changes the atmosphere without even trying.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6a0b722630ca6.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Kellie Walenciak<\/p>\n
I never really thought of myself as one of those people, which is why hearing it from a stranger in a hospital hallway stayed with me so long afterward.<\/p>\n
What struck me was how small the interaction had been. I wasn\u2019t doing anything extraordinary. I was offering someone a Peppermint Patty. Yet somehow that tiny moment communicated something I hadn’t expected.<\/p>\n
What I\u2019m discovering at the hospital is this: small gestures seem to matter to people in ways I never fully understood before. Maybe it\u2019s because pushing a coffee cart changes the way you move through a day.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s very different from most of my professional life, where interactions are usually moving quickly toward something \u2014 a decision, an idea, an outcome. This isn\u2019t like that. The entire focus is on the person in front of me: what they need or what might make their day a little easier. My role is to notice.<\/p>\n
The volunteers I\u2019ve met really do seem happy to be there. Most are retired. They take the work seriously, almost tenderly, even though nobody is paying them and very few people outside those walls probably know what they do all day. They seem to understand something I\u2019m only now figuring out \u2014 that feeling useful and feeling connected are often the same thing.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, every person I encounter \u2014 nurses, doctors, visitors, families waiting outside the OR \u2014 seems genuinely appreciative. People who look exhausted still smile back. Stressed people soften for a second.<\/p>\n
I asked a couple in the waiting area if they wanted coffee, and they looked up as if they hadn\u2019t expected anyone to speak to them. They were already holding big, insulated tumblers, so I offered to refill them.<\/p>\n
The way they thanked me was out of proportion to what I\u2019d done, which was nothing, really. But maybe that was the point. For a moment, they weren\u2019t waiting. They were just getting coffee.<\/p>\n
Last week, a nurse asked if we had green tea. We only had two kinds of black, so I told her I\u2019d bring some the next shift, and I did.<\/p>\n
An ER worker mentioned he didn\u2019t really like any of the snacks, so I asked what he might like instead. He said healthier things. The next week, I brought in Larabars.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s exactly what that place does to you. The smile behind the stress, the appreciation behind the exhaustion \u2014 it makes you want to do more.<\/p>\n
I went into volunteering thinking I was there to give something. What I didn\u2019t expect was how much I would receive from it.<\/p>\n
Because the truth is, when I\u2019m slowly walking through those halls every week, I\u2019m not thinking about myself at all. I\u2019m thinking about the people holding that place together day after day, often while carrying far more than anyone around them realizes.<\/p>\n
And somehow, in the middle of all that seriousness and stress, handing someone a coffee or a Peppermint Patty can feel oddly meaningful.<\/p>\n
Not because the gesture is big, but because the person receiving it is.<\/p>\n
***********************************<\/p>\n
Kellie Walenciak of Forks Township is a volunteer at St. Luke\u2019s Anderson Campus and a communications executive.<\/p>\n
Kellie Walenciak of Forks Township is a volunteer at St. Luke\u2019s Anderson Campus and a communications executive.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
By Sara Emerle, Center Valley<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
By Matt Assad, the Managing Editor of the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission.<\/p>\n
\n
\n <\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6705baa5efb94.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n
\n <\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/639b8af1b8946.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/69f8b5081db01.image.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/69ed3e4140153.image.webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n