’72 & still going strong’ Navy veteran serves community in a different way amid pandemic

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    HENDERSON COUNTY, NC (WLOS) — Almost any day of the week, you can find Marie McKinley volunteering at AdventHealth Hendersonville.

’72 & still going strong’ Navy veteran serves community in a different way amid pandemic

“I believe it’s three years at the end of December,” McKinley said.

She says it keeps her busy and gives her something to do now that she’s retired.

“I was an accountant,” she said. Before that, she served in the Navy. “Vietnam — in the 60s.”

Serving is in her blood. So much so, that when the pandemic hit, Marie says she started looking for more volunteer opportunities.

“I asked Shelby what else I could do and she said you could do these,” McKinley described COVID-19 test kits.

“I put a label on these tubes like this. Then, I put saline in them. This is pre-measured. Then, I take the saline filled tubes and one of these sticks and put them in the kit.”

Hospitals, like Advent Health, use the grab-and-go kits to test patients.

“So there’s 20 in each bag,” said McKinley.

McKinley’s been putting them together since March. So far, she’s done 15,000 of them.

“I don’t count them,” McKinley laughed. “All I do is count 20.”

“I was in shock when I heard that she had put together 15,000 test kits,” said Shelby Lands, a volunteer coordinator for the hospital.

Lands says she’s thankful for people like McKinley

“It’s just been amazing the kind of service she’s been helping us with and doing for us,” said Lands.

McKinley has no plans of stopping any time soon. “I’m 72 and I’m still going strong,” she said.

“Marie is truly selfless,” Lands added. “She is just always available to help and I think that’s what a true hero is.”

Marie McKinley — we salute you.

“I wanna thank whoever did this for me, to me,” she said of her ‘heroes’ nomination.

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