Volunteer Dedicates 39 Years of Service to VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System
Diana J. Williams has been volunteering at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System for 39 years, since 1986.
“The impact of Diana Williams’s volunteer work at VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and the Los Angeles Ambulatory Care Center since the 1980s cannot be overstated,” said Pamela Keith, Service Chief, Center for Development and Civil Engagement. “Her tireless efforts have brought comfort, joy, and support to generations of Veterans. Her dedication is a powerful reminder of the extraordinary impact one person can have on the lives of others, and we are deeply grateful for her years of service to our nation's heroes.”
For her service, Williams has been awarded the Presidential Lifetime Achievement and recognized for her Leadership and Humanitarian Accomplishments by the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World Antlered Guard Department.
Williams began her volunteering at the Wadsworth Theater on the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center campus, through the Jackie Robinson American Legion Auxiliary Unit 252. Going out there and seeing all the Veterans in the hospital, some with amputations, touched her heart, she said.
Her initial service involved handing out refreshments, playing games like bingo and cards, giving out gifts like canteen books (vouchers for food and stamps), and giving out clothing such as underwear, t-shirts and socks.
“Seeing how excited they were and pleased to see us come and service them each first Saturday of the month from 2-4 p.m. just excited me,” said Williams.
She said she volunteered at the theater through the early 1980s and early 1990s, before moving over to Bldg. 500, the main hospital on the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center campus.
Williams said in 2000 she moved to the Los Angeles Ambulatory Care Center (LAACC) Dental Clinic for about a year before working in the volunteer office and the congregant’s desk.
She said her favorite volunteer work was at the walk-in Williams Wilson Clothing Room that was at LAACC, that was closed at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, where she handed out coffee and new garments as Veterans needed them, especially during the cold months.
“I’ll never forget in 2019, when they started tearing down the downtown tent city, where the homeless lived, this particular Vietnam Veteran came in and he told me, ‘I want you to give me a pair of women pants, them tight pants they wear, because they’re going to keep my legs warm,’” said Williams. “He said ‘I gotta sleep on the ground tonight because they tore my house down today. Can I get a blanket to sleep on?’
“Well I’m gonna give you two,” said Williams. “Then he looked up and saw a little baby blanket and he said, ‘give me that baby blanket because I gotta put it up as a cushion, because I gotta sleep on the ground tonight.’
“When he got ready to go out, he turned around and came back and got right up in my face. He said ‘thank you for being so nice to me,’” said Williams.
She said, “Thank you!”
“He said, ‘Why is that?,’” said Williams.
She said, “You fought so I could be free.”
“And this one thing stuck with me,” said Williams. “I want to be there to help them. You know, I can’t save the world, but I want to be there to help them, just to show them a little bit of love and concern, and let them know that they’re not forgotten. My enjoyment is just seeing them happy for a moment by giving them something to feel like they’re still human beings, because some of them don’t have families, don’t have loved ones, they just have us.”
She quoted Muhammad Ali and said she considers volunteer work as payment on her room in heaven, and considers the gratitude of Veterans its own form of payment; bringing joy to Veterans and their families.
For anyone considering volunteering at VA, she said that it gives you joy and contentment seeing someone else less fortunate than yourself be happy, and that’s not something that money can buy. “It makes me feel good when I come home and lay my head down on the pillow and go to sleep, that at least I helped someone today, made someone’s day a little brighter.”
“I’ll be serving from now until forever,” Williams said.
To learn more about how you can volunteer with VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and work with other outstanding volunteers like Williams please visit www.va.gov/greater-los-angeles-health-care/work-with-us/volunteer-or-do….