At 5:30 in the morning, most hospital hallways are quiet except for the hum of machines. At McLeod Seacoast Hospital in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, that quiet gets a soundtrack. Peg Mann, a volunteer harpist, arrives every Thursday, the hospital’s busiest day for same-day surgery, and gets to work long before she plays a single note. She escorts patients, pushes the comfort cart, and sits with families in the waiting room. Then she brings out the harp.
Mann added the instrument to her repertoire in 2005 and still takes lessons three times a month. She also plays piano and organ, and has performed at weddings and in church. But this role is different. Volunteer manager Peggy Skudera initially questioned whether a harp belonged in a hospital at all, saying her thought was, “next stop is heaven.” Now Skudera describes Mann as so connected to the instrument that she seems unaware of the people listening around her, which is exactly how Mann likes it. She prefers being background music rather than the center of attention.
After a full shift of escorting, pushing, and playing, Mann says she feels like she has new friends every day when she goes home. It’s a reminder that comfort in a hospital doesn’t always come from a prescription. Sometimes it comes from a neighbor with a skill and a few free hours. Here on the Suncoast, we have no shortage of both. So we want to know: what’s the most meaningful volunteer work you’ve seen in our community, and where did you find it?
