The Preeceville Hospital auxiliary Christmas auction was deemed another success by organizers. The auction was held at the Preeceville Club 60 on November 26
"Everything up for auction was generously donated by community and surrounding area members," said Elaine Christopherson, president.
Items donated included: bread, buns, an assortment of goody trays, crocheted items and grab bags.
Auctioneers for the evening were: Stacey Strykowski, Sheldon Luciw, Bob Lebo and Ollie Maksymiw.
Christopherson spoke briefly on the accomplishments and donations of the auxiliary. "Through everyone's generous support through donations, memorials and attendance of our functions we are still striving to keep our out patient department, lab and palliative room the best they can be.”
Purchases made by the auxiliary in the past year include: stickers and toys for children in emergency; an Otoscope diagnostic set (used for looking into ears); a Hyfrecator 2000 (used for cauterizing); support to the Preeceville Musher Rendezvous; LifePak 15, cart and accessories (a heart monitor); a tea kettle, coffee pot and folding chairs for the palliative family room; bursaries and a receiver for the television in the palliative room.
"We also have a sleep chair for palliative family room on order and we are looking at purchasing a memory foam mattress for palliative,” stated Christopherson.
Rhonda Durand, the Preeceville and District Health Centre health service manager, introduced herself and brought greetings from the health care region.
Stacey Strykowski, chairperson of the Preeceville and District health action committee, brought greetings from the committee.
"The action committee has raised nearly $40,000 since our inception two years ago," she said. "The money we raise go towards doctor recruitment and retention of health-care professionals in our community. We said a farewell to one doctor on November 9 and will welcome another new doctor in early February. We continue to work on doctor recruitment on an ongoing basis, taking a proactive approach.
"Our mandate continues to be to follow the primary objective of the Canadian Health Care policy to protect, promote and restore the physical and mental well being of residents and to facilitate reasonable access to health services without financial or other barriers. Unfortunately, barriers have been set up for our community. It is still our intent to work with partners to lobby the government to ensure locals have a say in their own facilities and to make it known that we are valuable stakeholders in our hospital," concluded Strykowski.
