Silver Cross Employee, 20-Year Army Vet, Found Another Way to Serve

Ron Robinson remembers watching a group of devoted women planting small flags for Memorial Day displays outside Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox last year, where he works as a nutrition services aide.

“I was so inspired by what they were doing, I told myself I’m going to do that next year,” said Robinson, of Joliet, a 20-year Army veteran who served in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm.

The “Golden Girls,” as Robinson affectionately calls them, are members of the Silver Cross Hospital auxiliary Childerguild, which celebrated its 75th anniversary of the Childerguild Gift Shop in June of this year. The auxiliary has helped raise more than $6.8 million for Women and Children’s health services at Silver Cross.

In May of this year, Robinson walked into the Childerguild Gift Shop in the lobby of Silver Cross and asked to help with the flags.

“That was a first,” said Holly Tomashek, a retired teacher who is the Gift Shop’s toy buyer and marketing maven. “He was wonderful. We told him when we put them out, and he was there early. Then he said, ‘I’ll be back to take them down!’”

Tomashek said she doesn’t know how many flags they put up, but they’re at every entrance possible at the main campus – and in flower/plant pots across the hospital.

“When it was time to take the flags down, Ron just stepped in and did what needed to be done. He is just so nice.”

Robinson said he was honored to help.

“All the people I met during my time in the service. Some who didn’t make it. I was remembering them. It made me feel good,” he added.

Robinson also helped Childerguild members remove the flags after Memorial Day, and then put them back in (and remove them) for Flag Day and the Fourth of July holidays.

He says his desire to join the armed forces started in his teens, when his uncle returned from a tour of duty in Vietnam.

“I wanted to be just like him.”

Robinson served in Airborne divisions in Iraq, and after he left the service, he worked for a now-defunct airline. The Chicago native then moved to Joliet, where he met his wife, Pat, and began working at the St. Vincent DePaul Thrift Store.

After his wife passed away during the COVID-19 pandemic, Robinson said he went into a tailspin. Then, one day, he decided to apply for a position at Silver Cross.

“Silver Cross saved my life,” he said. “They helped turn me around. Everyone is wonderful here. It is the best place to work. I am truly blessed.”

For more information about Silver Cross, or to search open positions at the hospital, visit silvercross.org/careers