Missi Gibbs has volunteered at Roosevelt Hospital for so many years, she’s forgotten when she started. “I don’t even know,” she said. “It’s been over 30 years!”

Gibbs, who turns 75 in November, is receiving a Westy award for her volunteer work.

“We are so lucky to have her here with us,” said Kathleen Dalton, director of volunteer services at St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals. Dalton, who has known Gibbs for more than seven years, described her as an invaluable member of the hospitals’ volunteer team

“We all have whatever blessings we have, which really aren’t because of us. And so what we can do is give back,” Gibbs said on a recent Saturday in her apartment on West 81st Street. She first started volunteering at Roosevelt after her priest recommended it. “I got the names from the chaplain’s office of people who frequently did not have visitors,” she said.

At that time, hospital stays tended to be longer, Gibbs explained. “If someone had a stroke, they’d stay there for weeks.” After work, she visited patients, keeping them company. “I really, really loved it because I met interesting people,” she said. She later volunteered in the hospital gift shop and served as treasurer for the St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Associate Trustees.

Currently, Gibbs volunteers every Friday as an ambulatory surgery liaison, facilitating communication between patients’ families and the medical staff. Then on Mondays she works in the maternity unit helping to escort families after they are discharged.

In addition to volunteering at Roosevelt, she is the chairperson of the beneficiaries committee of St. George’s Society of NY, an organization assisting local elderly and disabled residents who have a British and Commonwealth heritage. She is also a former board member of the Manhattan Plaza Foundation, which sponsored HIV and AIDS support programs.

Born in Pennsylvania, Gibbs grew up outside of Chicago. After attending Sweet Briar College in Virginia for two years, she transferred to Katharine Gibbs in New York when it was a secretarial school. “Back in the days when you wore hats and white gloves,” she said.

After graduation, she returned to Chicago for her first job at Life magazine. “I worked for the merchandizing manager and had lots of fun,” she said. Gibbs later moved back to New York with her husband. “When my feet hit New York, I knew this is where I’m staying forever and ever and ever,” she said. A mother of a son and a daughter, she remained in the city after her divorce.

She is generous with her time as well as her three-bedroom apartment, which she shares with her 23-year-old granddaughter as well as a Romanian pianist she describes as her “adopted” adult son.

“He needed a place to stay and the cats liked him,” she explained. (Gibbs adopted her two cats, Poopster and Sister Susie.) Two of her granddaughter’s friends have also been staying at the apartment temporarily. “I am currently running Granny’s flophouse,” she said.

iPad Snatch
A 33-year-old man told police that he was walking on the grounds of the Amsterdam Houses on Saturday morning when two men in their early twenties, one wielding a black handgun, approached him. The perp carrying the gun told the man, “Don’t say anything. Give me the iPad.” The man handed over his iPad, worth $799, and the two robbers darted into 217 W. 63rd St. in the housing complex.

Designer Thief
Two men entered the Sunglass Hut at Broadway and 79th Street Friday afternoon seeking designer shades. One of the employees in the store at the time, a 29-year-old woman, recognized the men from a previous crime. As the men approached, the employee and a co-worker told them to get out. But that didn’t dissuade them—the men began to grab multiple pairs of sunglasses from a rack near the door, snatching $1,520 worth of shades, all of them by Gucci and Prada. When the co-worker tried to take the glasses away from the culprits, one of the men pushed her away. The two men fled on foot out the door.

Forged Checks
Someone cloned a 68-year-old man’s checks from his checking account and used his personal information to transfer funds from one account to another, the man told police on Friday at 11 a.m. The forged checks totaled $26,000, and the man doesn’t know the people who deposited them.

Street Attack
A 45-year-old woman told police that a heavyset woman wearing a black do-rag hit her with an unknown object just after 4:30 a.m. on June 20, causing a small cut to her neck. The woman was removed to Roosevelt Hospital for treatment. Police said the woman was uncooperative and hostile, telling inconsistent stories.

Mystery Mace
As a 63-year-old Asian man walked on West 74th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues on Friday evening, a 39-year-old man sprayed him with an unknown substance in a pink bottle, causing pain and swelling to his eye and the left side of his face. The older man was taken to Roosevelt Hospital and the perp was arrested that same day.

iPhone Grab
A 14-year-old boy was walking southbound on the east side of West End Avenue between West 77th and 78th streets on the evening of June 20 when two unknown men approached him. The taller of the men asked the boy, “Can I see your phone?” The men surrounded the boy, who told police that he was fearful for his safety. The boy handed his iPhone to one of the men and continued walking southbound without looking back. He didn’t notice in which direction the robbers fled.

Picture of a Crime
When a Japanese tourist paused to take photos on the southeast corner of Central Park West and West 66th Street on the evening of June 17, he didn’t realize that placing his black Tumi bag on the ground next to him would cause a problem. As he snapped a shot, someone picked up his bag, containing a $325 Gucci Wallet, $800 in cash, Japanese currency and a Japanese passport, and immediately fled.

Today’ Host Raises Funds for Breast Cancer

Last week, Today show co-host and breast cancer survivor Hoda Kotb delivered the keynote address at Beth Israel Medical Center and St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospital’s Breast Service Luncheon at the Pierre Hotel on the Upper East Side. Her speech was followed by an exclusive fashion show by designer Zang Toi. The event, now in its 21st year, raised $600,000 to benefit breast cancer programs.

Proceeds from the luncheon, which was chaired by Continuum trustee Betty Yarmon and hosted 500 socially prominent women and men, will benefit the Appel-Venet Comprehensive Breast Center at Beth Israel Medical Center and the Comprehensive Breast Center at St. Luke’s and Roosevelt Hospitals. These programs provide diagnosis and treatment, educational programs, screenings, genetic counseling, clinical research, support groups and wellness programs for thousands of women and their families.

UES Recycling Event

Upper Green Side is holding a recycling event Saturday, April 28, from 10 a.m.–3 p.m. at St. Catherine’s Park, 1st Avenue between 67th and 68th streets. They will be accepting electronics (including computers and related accessories and equipment, TVs, DVD players, video games, cell phones and other devices but not appliances, such as toasters, etc.) paper and clothes of all kinds.

Winners of East River Design Competition

CIVITAS NYC, an Upper East Side community urban planning group, recently chose the first, second and third place winners in a competition that challenged designers and planners to envision ways to revitalize the waterfront of the Upper East Side. They reviewed over 90 submissions from more than 25 different countries.

“The area we are looking at is the waterfront park esplanade on the East River from 60th to 120th Street,” said Hunter Armstrong, executive director of CIVITAS. “A lot of people want to see the waterfront on par with downtown and the Upper West Side.”

Although the neighborhood was recently outfitted with a new bridge at 78th Street and has a project in the works for the nearby 91st Street esplanade, Armstrong pointed out that most of the waterfront greenway of the Upper East Side in these areas is falling apart and slowly crumbling into the river.

The competition, which was co-sponsored by Community Board 8, was opened to designers from all over the world in the fall of 2010. While the contest is designed to open a forum for discussion on what can be done to improve the waterfront, there have been no plans thus far by the city or the Parks Department to take up the project.

The first place winner was Joseph Wood, a designer from Hopewell, N.J. His elaborate design called for an underground river of rainwater that would span the distance between 60th and 120th Street. The river would nourish a park on the esplanade above it and provide a way to send rainwater into the East River.

His design also calls for adding several new bridges to the waterfront spanning over the FDR Drive. For his visionary outlook on handling revitalization and water management, Wood was awarded $5,000 by CIVITAS and will have his work displayed at the Re-imagining the Waterfront exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York beginning June 6.

Armstrong hopes that when the exhibition is put on display at the museum, contractors will take notice of the designs and perhaps put a request in to bring one of the ideas to life.

Healthy Kids Day

The Vanderbilt YMCA is hosting its annual Healthy Kids Day this Saturday, April 28, from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. There will be activities for kids and adults, including a bounce house, carnival games, art projects and a family concert with Rolie Polie Guacamole at 11 a.m. The programs are designed to encourage kids to stay active and healthy as summer vacation approaches. The event will take place at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, on East 47th Street between 1st and 2nd avenues. All events are free.

New UES Landmark

Last week, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) officially designated the former Barbizon Hotel for Women building, at 140 E. 63rd St., as the Upper East Side’s newest landmark. The 23-story hotel, constructed in 1927-1928 and designed by architects Murgatroyd & Ogden, became famous in its heyday as a respectable place for single women in the city to find lodging.

The LPC recognized and praised the building for its “masterful handling of its eclectic mixture of North Italian Romanesque, Gothic, and Renaissance ornament.” It was built with studio and rehearsal spaces specifically to attract women in artistic fields, and over the decades many talented and soon-to-be famous women—from comedian Elaine Stritch and actress Candice Bergen to writers Eudora Welty and Sylvia Plath, who fictionalized the place in her novel, The Bell Jar— stayed there. Many women who came to the city for modeling careers or as art students filled the hotel, which was strictly monitored for the presence of men and enforced dress codes and curfews on its young residents.

The Barbizon changed hands several times and was converted to condominiums in 2005, but the LPC determined that it retained enough of its architectural glory—and fascinating New York City history—to be worthy of designation as the 127th individual landmark on the Upper East Side.

Neighborhood Meeting

The East 79th Street Neighborhood Association will be holding its next monthly meeting on Thursday, May 10 at 6 p.m. Officers from the 19th Precinct will report on neighborhood safety concerns, and guest speakers from the group Residents for Sane Trash Solutions, which was formed in opposition to the East. 91st Street Marine Transfer Station, will present information. Representatives from local elected officials will also give updates. At the City University of New York, 535 E. 80th St.

Home Invasion
Last Thursday night, a masked man pushed his way into an apartment on West 81st Street, brandishing what appeared to be a silver weapon to the startled male victim who answered the door. The suspect, who police said is known only as “Anthony,” told his male victim to shut up and get on the ground, then went into the living room where a woman was sleeping and told her to get on the ground as well. When she got onto her knees, he hit her in the back of the head and tied her hands. The invader then forced both victims into the bedroom, where he demanded the code to their safe and withdrew $4,700 in cash, then fled the apartment. The suspect is still at large.

Not-So-Friendly Friend
A woman called police last week to report a theft by her one-time Facebook friend. She said that she met the man on the social networking site and had been having a consensual sexual relationship with him. At their most recent tryst at the Comfort Inn Motel on West 71st Street, she asked her companion to fetch a few items from her car. When he did not
return, she checked the vehicle and discovered that her pal had grabbed $3,000 in cash and left her. Sounds like a solid case for de-friending.

Prank Callers
A worker at the Martin Luther King School reported that while she was a work, an unknown person snatched her $600 iPhone out of her bag and made 39 unauthorized calls on the cell phone before she could freeze her account.

Grabby Hands
On Saturday, a 61-year-old woman waited patiently in line at a TD Bank location to make a deposit. The customer in line behind her, a 60-year-old woman, was not so patient, and reached into the victim’s purse to lift $400 in cash. The thief was promptly arrested.

No Saving Seats
A patron of the arts attended an event at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall last week and placed her bag on the empty seat next to her. She was so riveted by the evening’s entertainment that she didn’t notice until later that her black Chanel purse, worth $3,000 on its own, was gone. The purse also contained a $1,000 Gucci wallet, a $499 iPhone, a $200 Blackberry and $400 in cash, as well as credit cards.

Angel Assault
Last Wednesday, scared residents of the Amsterdam Houses NYCHA development called police as a man high on the drug known as angel dust terrorized everyone who walked through the lobby. The crazed man threatened anyone who passed, including kids, and refused to leave. When police arrived, they tried to subdue the man, but he was able to
punch one of the officers square in the face, breaking his glasses and giving him
a nasty laceration. The man continued flailing his arms and contorting his body
to avoid the handcuffs that police eventually slapped on him, and they discovered two bags of the illegal drug in his pockets. The man was arrested and brought to Roosevelt Hospital for treatment.

Baby as Decoy
A couple walked into a Duane Reade last Thursday pushing a baby stroller, a normal sight until an employee noticed that they were stashing several varieties of Crest White Strips under the carriage. They were able to fit 21 boxes, worth a total of $1,025, into the stroller, then fled the store. Now police are on the lookout for a couple with extremely bright smiles.