DCH CELEBRATES
AUXILIAN’S 100TH BIRTHDAY WITH OPEN HOUSE
Each Friday, Luella Ropers of Aurora spends her
afternoon volunteering in the Dearborn County Hospital Auxiliary
Gift Shop. On Friday, March 12, however, her routine changed.
Instead of spending the afternoon working with
customers, Mrs. Ropers became the center of attention as the
Auxiliary held an open house to celebrate her 100th
birthday. Presented with a cake, a bouquet of long stemmed roses
and a tiara, Mrs. Ropers greeted visitors and opened birthday cards
and gifts. Guests at the centenarian’s party included her cousins
Sharon Lovell and Helen Niebrugge, numerous members of the DCH
Auxiliary and well wishers from the hospital staff.
Since 1985, Mrs. Ropers has accumulated more
than 3,900 hours of volunteer service for the Auxiliary by working
in the Gift Shop, a position she acquired after her retirement from
Hazel’s Hallmark Shop in Aurora. Mrs. Ropers, a widow whose husband
Berend died in 1991, was a waitress and then a hostess for the White
Crane Sanitarium, a spa in Dillsboro, in the 1930s. She also taught
Sunday school at various churches in Indiana and Wisconsin from the
time she was 16 until her early 80s. The former Luella Laaker was
born on March 13, 1910, in Dewberry, Indiana.
