Donna Welch was not born in Newburyport but she has lived here for 55 years. All of those years she has spent being a volunteer for various Newburyport institutions, most notably the Anna Jaques Hospital Aid Association.
“I came here with my husband in 1954 and immediately went into volunteer work,” she says.
Prior to a few years before that, she had never been East, she notes – having been in Ohio and attending Ohio State University, she took the plunge to get into the insurance business in Hartford. There she met Josiah Welch, a Port native who was also training to be a group services representative for the same insurance company.
They were married after Josiah got out of the Army and moved to Newburyport.
In 1986, when Donna Welch was President of the Anna Jaques Aid Association, the group needed a new fundraiser. She had read about a group in Portsmouth, NH, that had an event featuring local chefs. It sounded good to her so she gave the group a ring.
For the $10 membership fee, she was told, she could learn everything about the event. She paid, she learned, and thus was born Great Chefs’ Night, the primary fundraiser for the Association. The 2009 event was held last month. The proceeds from the event, after minor expenses, always go to a targeted piece of equipment or patient care initiative at the hospital.
“It’s a very important word to us – community,” she says. “We represent and give to the community.”
Since 1888, members of the Anna Jaques Aid Association serve as ambassadors of the hospital to the community – the greater Newburyport community which the hospital serves. Donna Welch is in her fourth term serving on the Association’s board.
