Operating for over 100 years is already a milestone, yet the Quesnel Hospital Auxiliary is celebrating 115 years of supporting its community.
The Auxiliary’s contributions to date have exceeded $2 million, encompassing everything from producing the doctors’ and nurses’ uniforms to acquiring a Resusci-Anne Simulator doll for CPR instruction back in the 1980s, and providing furniture for the palliative care and the hospice house.
More contributions include purchasing video games and toys for the Children’s Ward in 1986, and a Fetal Heart Monitor in 1991. The Auxiliary also fundraised more than $70,000 to purchase a Mammography Machine in 1998.
The Auxiliary has been operating in Quesnel since before the current hospital was named G.R. Baker Memorial. Its list of contributions, the Hospital Auxiliary has fundraised and purchased, can go on, and all of the funds were raised through bake sales, tag days, dances, grants, and local organizations such as the Quesnel Community Foundation.
The Community Foundation, the Quesnel Lion’s Club, and the Hospital Auxiliary partnered this year to purchase 34 rental TVs to be installed in patient rooms.
“ It takes a community to support everything, like churches and then hospitals, everybody volunteered,” says Auxiliary Coordinator JoAnn Houston.
“Didn’t matter how old you were. You were in there doing something right for someone else. That’s where all that mentality comes from, and I think over the 115 years, we’ve managed to sustain that.”
To honour the 115th anniversary, the Quesnel Hospital Auxiliary is hosting the North Area Fall Conference from September 12 to September 14.
72 Auxiliary members, coming from more than 17 various communities in the North, will be gathering at the Seniors Centre, and visiting G.R. Baker, and the Quesnel Auxiliary Gift Shop.
The conference will feature three guest speakers, one of whom will present on the Purple Crying Campaign, which relates to Shaken Baby Syndrome.
The Quesnel Auxiliary is making and collecting purple baby touques and hats to give to new parents and expectant mothers. The hats will include emergency contact information to help spread awareness that Shaken Baby Syndrome has increased since COVID.
The Quesnel Auxiliary is primarily run by volunteers, and is always looking for more members.
“10 volunteers would allow us to run things a bit more comfortably,” says Auxiliary President Louis Bealieu. “There are many things we do at the Auxiliary, all volunteer and community-run. No help is unwanted.”
The Hospital Auxiliary very much appreciates the help of the Quesnel Communities over its 115 years. Houston says long-established businesses have been a huge help to the Auxiliary over the years, such as Willis Harper hosting the Auxiliary’s annual Christmas Bake Sale.
“This town is fabulous,” Houston says. “It makes me emotional. It is very rare that we ever get a ‘no’ when we ask for help. There are so many places that help, like the seniors centre for our conference this year. We [The Quesnel Hospital Auxiliary] would not be around still if it weren’t for how generous our community has been over the years.”
At this year’s North Area Fall Conference, there will also be a silent auction held, door prizes, and entertainment by the Old Time Fiddlers.
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