The gift of good health is the gift that keeps on giving, and, when it comes to the efforts of the Meadow Lake Hospital Foundation, it’s a gift many more people will benefit from. Saturday (Nov. 29) marked the annual Festival of Trees, a dinner and auction that serves as the foundation’s biggest fundraiser of the calendar year. The event took place at the Meadow Lake Civic Centre, and, according to foundation chair Scott Campbell, it was a great success.
“An excess of $100,000 was raised through all the festivities at the gala,” Campbell told Northern Pride earlier this week. “We still have some bills to pay, so I don’t have an exact figure at this time, but we definitely met our expectations.” The hospital foundation, an entirely volunteer-driven organization, works to raise money to purchase equipment for the local hospital and clinic. This year’s wish list of items the foundation now plans to purchase with the money raised this past weekend includes a sleeper sofa, a Rhapsody standard tub, a bariatric air support surface, two ECG led machines, a centrifuge, a Pyxis machine (an automated medication dispensing system), an anesthetic machine monitor and a birthing bed.
“We don’t just buy for doctors, for nurses or for this or that,” Campbell remarked when addressing the sold out crowd in attendance for the gala. “There are four or five different groups inside the hospital, and they all come to us with things they would like us to purchase because capital expenditures won’t cover them. We try to pick something from each group because each group is important, whether you’re a doctor, a nurse, a lab tech, an X-ray tech, you work in maintenance or as a cook or a cleaner. We want to be able to buy something for everybody.” Campbell went on to say equipment purchased by the hospital foundation stays in Meadow Lake. “If the Saskatchewan Health Authority brings something in, they can move it from here to there or to anywhere they want,” he added. “But, if it’s ours, it stays in our hospital.”
Also on hand to address the audience was Dr. Leani Loots, chief of staff at the Meadow Lake Hospital, who gave special recognition to the hospital foundation board of directors. “This amazing group of people works very hard throughout the year to fi nd ways to raise money for equipment at our hospital,” Loots said. “I know they, along with lots of volunteers, also spent many hours to make this evening happen.” Loots also said, in addition to supporting the hospital foundation through donations, people can do so by becoming part of the board.
“I know we are always looking for more hands, more ideas, more people to be a part of this team and to make all of this happen,” she said. “Thank you, again, to all of you who are here tonight. You are the people who really make this happen and make this evening a huge success… Working at the Meadow Lake Hospital can be challenging. It is certainly rewarding, but I am sure you can imagine, it is also challenging. We don’t have specialists on hand to give us advice, we may not have the most sophisticated diagnostic equipment and tests available they have at larger hospitals, but we still try to do the best we can for every single patient we see. Much of the equipment we fundraise for at these events makes a huge difference in terms of what we are able to do for our patients at our hospital.” Loots went on to note, over the last several years and thanks to the efforts of the foundation, the hospital has been able to secure new cardiac monitors in the emergency rooms, new resuscitation equipment for newborns and more. “All of that is thanks to the work our hospital foundation does and the support you give our foundation,” she said. “On behalf of the physicians in Meadow Lake, our nurses and our patients, thank you for being here tonight, for donating and for supporting our hospital.”
Campbell, meanwhile, reiterated Loots’ remarks about a need for more people to join the foundation board. “We only have six members on our board right now, and two members’ terms are up in December, so things are looking a little lean,” he said. “If they decide not to stay on we will only have four members, and we would be in danger of not having a hospital foundation board at all. I don’t want that to happen, I don’t think that will happen, but we need some people from the community to step up, people from this group here tonight… It’s very rewarding, a great way to give back to the community and we all have time and talents.”
The foundation’s annual general meeting is scheduled for Dec. 16 at the hospital, and anyone is welcome to attend if interested in coming onboard. “The more people we have, the more things we can do,” Campbell said. In closing, Campbell spoke about the importance of the hospital itself. “A lot of people don’t think about the hospital until they need it, and, unfortunately, that’s just the way it is,” he said. “But, we’re all going to use the hospital at some point. I would like to thank all our (Festival of Trees) sponsors, the people who donated to the auction or prize barn, and to all the people who attended. It was amazing.”