CHRIS MARSHALL -- For a good cause

In the 15 years she has been volunteering at Hoag Hospital, Chris

Marshall has logged an eye-popping 12,400 hours of charity time. That

works out to more than 826 hours per year and almost 16 hours per week.

The sturdy Belgian-born Marshall, who has lived in her Balboa

Peninsula home since 1950, doesn’t have a complicated answer to why she

gives so much of her time to the hospital.

‘I do the bookkeeping for the gift shop, and I work in the

[hospital’s] thrift shop,’ Marshall said. ‘I work in the thrift shop,

which is fun because you meet people.’

At 78, Marshall has started slowing her volunteering, which is now in

its sixth decade in Newport Beach. Part of the reason: Her five children

have grown up, and her grandchildren, including twins who play football

for Newport Harbor High School, are on their way too.

Marshall’s free time, what little there is at least, has been taken up

with them -- she has been a den mother in Cub Scouts, a football booster

and PTA leader among other things.

Marshall was a war bride who left her home in the tiny southern

Belgian town of Charlesroi in 1946 to marry an American GI named Frank.

After the two settled in Newport Beach, she jumped into volunteering as a

way to meet people in her new country. She became a citizen in 1948.

During the 1960s, Marshall walked door to door in her neighborhood

soliciting donations for the March of Dimes, the American Heart Assn. and

other worthy charities.

‘Everybody knew me,’ Marshall said. ‘They saw me and said, ‘How much

do you want?”

In the 1970s, Marshall served as board president of the Newport Harbor

Art Museum, which is now known as the Orange County Museum of Art. From

1986 to 1996, she was on the board of the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum.

Marshall has received numerous awards over the years for her efforts

and dedication.

‘I cannot say ‘no,” Marshall said. ‘I have a satisfaction [to

volunteer time].’

* Story by Paul Clinton