At social events or other gatherings, I seem to quite often be introduced as a member of the Peace Arch Hospital and Community Health Foundation. I am proud to be automatically linked to our Hospital, and to the great fundraising efforts of the foundation.

But I am an auxilian; a proud, 25-year veteran of our 61-year-old auxiliary. Many auxilians have enjoyed more than 25 volunteer years with the auxiliary.

Peace Arch Hospital is fortunate to have two successful fundraising arms. The foundation receives and actively pursues gifts, runs the successful Win’Fall Lottery, and has accomplished phenomenal results on behalf of the hospital.

The Auxiliary was formed in l948, and has to date contributed more than $9,000,000 to our hospital. We were fundraising before ground had been broken for our new hospital and we have been doing so ever since. Our core is, and has been, women of our community, now joined by men who are also making a major difference.

Many of the facilities and equipment we have purchased is still being used every day. The $365,000 hydrotherapy pool was installed in l987, funded 100 per cent by the Auxiliary. This pool is used by residents of our hospital for hip replacement therapy and many other occupational therapies. It is a unique and major addition to our hospital.

The Auxiliary raised $307,000 in l988 to renovate the intensive care unit. And in 1994, yet another purchase was a $680,000 nuclear medicine gama camera.

Over the years, our relationship with the foundation has become closer. We have the same vision. We have the same goals.

Partners in Caring means exactly that. The Auxiliary is proud to be part of our partnership with the foundation. In 2008, we donated $1,000,000 to the MRI project, one of the Auxiliary’s proudest moments. And by 2010, we will have raised an additional $1,000,000 for the maternity project.

Over the next twelve months, we are having an up-to-date maternity ward built with the most amazing layout you have ever seen. Moms will have a wonderful environment to bring their babies – our future medical professionals and community members – into this world.

We raise money in many different ways and I hope to be able to use this column to inform you of the different events that take place and how you can support the Auxiliary. We need your support to continue to make our hospital special. Thank you to everyone that shops in our Superfluity Shop (thrift store) on Prospect Avenue and in our gift shop at the Hospital.

Watch for our announcements of all of the other events which also raise money for the Auxiliary.

We are a group of men and women who care about your health care. If you would like to volunteer or assist in any way, please call the Auxiliary office at 531-5512, local 7680.

Marylou Kirstein is president of Peace Arch Hospital Auxiliary Society. She writes monthly for the Peace Arch News.