news-record.com

REIDSVILLE — Stella Mabry couldn’t wait to get back to work earlier this year after undergoing back surgery in August 2008.

Mabry, who is celebrating her 87th birthday today, retired in 1987 from Burlington Industries, Reidsville Drapery Plant. She was a receptionist and switchboard operator for 22 years at the plant.

But as soon as Mabry retired, she began doing volunteer work at the Rockingham County Chapter of the American Red Cross and Annie Penn Hospital and has been a faithful volunteer ever since.

At the blood drives, Mabry registered donors and assisted them at the canteen.

Sometimes she works three or four times a month, maybe more, she said, adding she travels throughout Rockingham County to assist with the blood drives.

“She is just an angel,” said Ada Wells of ARC Blood Services. “She has been actively working at blood drives for years.

“She works in the canteen and is really good with people. Stella watches and makes sure they (the donors) are OK and that they get something to eat once they have given blood,” she said. 

Mabry worked Wednesday’s Bloodmobile at Annie Penn Hospital, and Wells said she can always be found working the canteens at the Reidsville YMCA and the Red Cross Chapter on N.C. 14.

In 2005, Zion Baptist Church recognized Mabry as Volunteer of the Year during its annual Community Service Awards dinner.

The large glass trophy on a stand indicates the honor was for Mabry’s “dedicated service to enhance the quality of life for the citizens of Reidsville and the surrounding community.”

Although she attended the dinner with several relatives and friends, Mabry said she had no idea she was going to receive an award.

Mabry’s work at Annie Penn Hospital initially was in short stay, and involved taking patients back from the operating room, taking messages and directing people to their appointment sites.

She also worked in Annie’s Corner, the hospital auxiliary-sponsored gift shop, for three or four months before her surgery.

“I was out most of the rest of the year and couldn’t go anything but a couple of blood drives,” she said of her Red Cross work.

She returned to the hospital’s gift shop the first of the year, working three times a month on Thursdays.

“I loved short stay but since I had the back surgery, I can’t push the wheelchairs,” she said, adding it has been had a challenge to adjust to the confinement of the gift shop.

“I enjoy people,” she said. “I never met a stranger and can talk to anybody.”

Mabry has given more than 6,000 hours of service to Annie Penn during her seven years there,

Sharon G. Troxler, director of volunteer services, said,  “She is an invaluable member of our volunteer team.”

A native of Grandview, a small community in western North Carolina, Mabry grew up in Atlanta.

Her husband, the late Rev. Ray Mabry, and she moved to Reidsville in the 1950s when he was transferred to the Globe Union Battery Co. on Southeast Market Street.

She has six children, 15 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Mabry is a member of Guerrant Springs Baptist Church in Ruffin, which her husband founded in 1963.

Ann Fish is a Reidsville native but has lived in Eden since 1979. She is a retired newspaper editor and reporter. Contact her at annsomersfish@yahoo.com