On Saturday, April 2, 14 employees from Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center worked on their day off. No, they didn’t clock into the hospital; rather they volunteered their time and service to Bridge of Hope, a hot meals program provided by Halifax Urban Ministries.  The employees refinished the Center’s floors, which took approximately 75 hours to complete the 2,500 square-foot project. 

The group started the project at 2 p.m. on Saturday, and by 6 p.m., the bulk of the floor-stripping had been completed.  They continued scrubbing and rinsing the floor multiple times over, until the old finish had been completely removed.  After the floor dried, the first coat of finish was applied at 8 p.m. Two hospital staff members, Fernando Cacoilo and Brandon Cutkomp, stayed until approximately 3:30 a.m. to complete the application of the floor finish and finished cleaning the kitchen floors. 

Raul Gonzalez, Bridge of Hope and Star Family Center director of operations, was very appreciative of clean and shiny floors. 

“We feed somewhere between 250 and 300 people a hot lunch 363 days out of the year,” said Gonzalez.  “We try to maintain floors as best we can, but it really needs to be refurbished every six months. It just so happens that when we really needed it, call it serendipity, Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center contacted us and volunteered to help. They’ve even volunteered to come back in another six months to do it again.”

Without the donated the labor and supplies, a job like this could have cost Halifax Urban Ministries somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500.

It truly was a group effort, as the hospital’s Environmental Services team provided the equipment; Materials Management department provided the truck to transport supplies and equipment to the jobsite; and Food and Nutritional Services provided the boxed lunches for the staff working to refinish the floors.  Additionally, 3M Commercial Care Division, one of Florida Hospital’s business partners, provided all the additional supplies necessary to complete the job. 

This is yet another example of Florida Hospital’s commitment to the local community. In 2010, Florida Hospital Volusia/Flagler invested more than $107 million in the region to increase capacity and technology.