Wake Forest Baptist Volunteer Sets Guinness World Record For Most Hours

Don Moss earns distinction of most volunteer hours worked in the world
47, 000 and counting

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Don Moss [full quality photo] is untouchable when it comes to volunteering. With 47,000+ hours to his credit and counting, the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center volunteer has established a new Guinness World Record for most volunteer hours worked.

Moss received official notification from Guinness last week. The record book -- published annually as a collection of world records, both for human achievements and extremes of the natural world -- took more than a year to verify, country by country, that he was indeed the individual with the most volunteer hours.

Moss is the Energizer Bunny of volunteers, which is how many co-workers describe him, except he runs purely on heart. He's on the go, Monday through Thursday, for a total of 48 hours a week -- his routine for the last 28 years. He delivers courtesy letters to patients and pitches in at the Gift Shop to deliver flowers when needed. He helps lost visitors find their way.

 What about Fridays, you might ask? "That's my honey-do list day," he says with a quick, flashing grin.

Moss' story began in 1980 when he got mowed down by a tractor trailer in a freak accident and spent three months in a coma with a major head injury and broken bones. Doctors at Wake Forest Baptist didn't think he would make it, but he woke up during his own birthday celebration and then spent the next year in a wheel chair rehabilitating his brain and body. Doctors didn't think he would walk again, but he defied their expectations. When he got out of the wheel chair, he swore he would never sit down again.

It was during his physical therapy that someone first suggested that he volunteer. After all, he had a lot of idle time waiting for his wife to pick him up and take him home. So he did -- he just never stopped.

And he doesn't intend to.

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