Dundalk Woman, 87, Honored For Work With Veterans

Lucille Scrivani first ventured to the Fort Howard Veteran’s Hospital with the intention of volunteering in 1963. The experience of watching former servicemen there struggling with injuries, ailments and poor health overwhelmed her.

“I guess I felt a little queasy,” she said looking back.

With encouragement from her husband, James, who served in the Pacific theater with the U.S. Navy during World War II, she returned in 1965 to Fort Howard and has been volunteering with veterans ever since.

At the 2010 Congressional Volunteer Recognition Award ceremony at Rep. C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger’s office last month, Scrivani was among six volunteers from Maryland’s Second Congressional District honored for their dedicated service to Maryland veterans.

Ruppersberger also recognized Kathleen Mooney and Michael Mooney of Parkville, Terry Lee Trish Jr. of Rosedale, and Catharine Wyland and Shirley Freeman of Baltimore.

Scrivani, who turns 88 in September, has donated her time and skills to the VA Maryland Health Care System for nearly five decades, accumulating an astounding 3,278 hours of volunteer work, according to a press release from Ruppersberger’s office.

A skilled seamstress, Scrivani dedicates her time at home to sewing convenient carrying bags for veterans using wheel chairs and walkers. She also sews lap blankets for veterans to keep their legs warm when they go outside.

Since the Fort Howard hospital closed a decade ago, Scrivani has been traveling to the Loch Raven VA Community Living and Rehabilitation Center with friends and other volunteers to volunteer there.

Recently, she said, she ran into a veteran in a wheel chair at the Loch Raven facility who was waiting for her. Kind of.

“I saw he had one of the bags I’d sewn and I said something like, ‘Oh, that’s a attractive bag you have,’” Scrivani said, recalling the encounter. “And he said, ‘Some nice lady made them for us, but I haven’t had the opportunity to thank her, yet.’ Well, I told him, ‘You're looking at her.’ And he thanked me and said it was so good to meet the person who’d made it.”

Scrivani, whose husband also volunteered at Fort Howard for several years before passing away in 1989, has been a member of the American Legion Post 38 in Dundalk for 48 years. She has two children, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

“And we’re waiting for the sixth,” she said.

Scrivani suggested that anyone interested in volunteering at one of the Veterans Administration hospitals, or any hospital, just show up one day and introduce themselves to the staff and take the time to meet a few patients.

“If you show someone that you care about them,” she said, "you won’t believe how good it will make you feel in return. The good Lord has blessed me with good health, and good hands, I’ll keep doing it as long as I can.”