The Louise Marshall Hospital Auxiliary marked its 90th anniversary last September, celebrating the organization’s founding commitment to support the community hospital.
It’s a commitment that has seen the auxiliary undertake a variety of fundraisers over the years through the efforts of its volunteers – all with the goal of keeping Louise Marshall Hospital (LMH) up to date to meet the changing needs of medical care in the community.
“The purpose of this voluntary group shall be to assist in every way in the interest of the ‘Best Patient Care’ and this purpose shall be accompanied under the direction of the hospital administration by interpretation of the hospital to the public,” the auxiliary policy statement reads.
“By service to the hospital and its patients, and by fundraising in a manner satisfactory to administration and in harmony and planning of the community.
“To promote good public relations between the hospital and community and encourage membership and to hold special events for fundraising. Auxiliary funds shall be used for the hospital in ways approved by the CEO and auxiliary.”
A second, clearer policy adopted by members states, “These funds will go toward ensuring that our neighbours, friends and family continue to receive the best possible health care, and that this care will continue to be delivered in our community setting,”
Today the auxiliary has about 80 members, according to president Barb Gardin.
The members meet monthly at the hospital boardroom. At times the meetings have guest speakers talking about issues such as community safety and the meetings often include planning of upcoming fundraising events.
The auxiliary hosts a spring luncheon, Christmas bazaar and quilt auction as part of its regular fundraising activities. It also assists with the annual CKNX Health Care Heroes Radiothon to raise money for several area hospitals, including LMH.
The auxiliary also operates the hospital gift shop and, more recently, branched out opening a thrift store downtown. All LMH activities and stores are staffed exclusively by volunteers.
For members it’s all about good health care provided by the hospital for residents. And it’s also about having fun and meeting people in conjunction with auxiliary activities and building on the group’s long history.
Verna Batenchuk has been a member for 26 years, serving for a time as the auxiliary historian and keeping records of what the auxiliary did during her tenure. Batenchuk has helped in every fundraising activity and is known for her outspokenness.
She recalls selling tickets at downtown stores for the quilt.
“When I was selling tickets, if somebody walked by and you know who they are you just, ‘Get back here’,” she joked.
Bertha Noble joined the auxiliary after moving to Mount Forest 27 years ago.
“I moved here from Georgetown and volunteered down there with the hospital and Red Cross and thought I could do the same here. It was a great way to meet people,” Noble said.
Darlene Dickie worked as a dietary aide at the hospital and joined the auxiliary after her retirement in 2000. She had volunteered in the hospital gift shop while still working as a hospital employee and continued with the auxiliary.
“Somebody probably twisted my arm,” she joked about the reason she became an auxiliary member. “I was just interested in helping.”
Batenchuk joked that getting Dickie as a member who had in-depth knowledge of the hospital meant the auxiliary didn’t need keys to get into locked areas.
“I still know how to get a key,” Dickie joked.
That would have come in handy on one occasion when Batenchuk was taking a group of students on a tour of the hospital.
She took the group into the basement and, “There was this boy and we were down by the incinerator and he said are my tonsils in there,” Batenchuk recalled of one of the more comical comments she has heard. It was a time when the hospital did incinerations.
She admitted it took a while for the group to find its way out of the basement because she “got lost.”
Noble recalled a time when the hospital received a large donation of books from an estate and auxiliary members set about sorting the collection for a book sale.
“Do you remember when we were in the morgue sorting books?” she asked fellow auxiliary members gathered around a cafeteria table during a recent interview.
“It was a book sale and we made some big bucks,” Batenchuk recalled, laughing about where the books were sorted.
Loreen Duncan also worked in the hospital’s housekeeping department for about 20 years before retiring in 1994 and joining the auxiliary a couple of years later. Duncan has taken on the historian duties for the auxiliary since taking it over from Batenchuk in 2006.
The members recall making 300 servings of coleslaw to go with the spring luncheon, and also stuffing some 7,000 flyers announcing the upcoming radiothon and putting together corsages late one evening before the Christmas bazaar.
They also remember when auxiliary members helped take care of long-term care patients at the hospital and fundraising activities that were attempted and eventually dropped.
“We’re a team,” Batenchuk acknowledged.
That team spirit was evident at the 90th anniversary celebration in September, where Audrey Donald was honoured for her 60 years of service with a provincial lifelong membership declaration.
“I joined the Louise Marshall Hospital Ladies Auxiliary in 1945,” Donald said.
She recalled an early Christmas bazaar where the auxiliary members served tea “all dressed up with hats, gloves, fur hats and coats and some fur stoles.”
“I didn’t go to all the meetings but helped in lots of different ways,” said Donald, who is still an active member.
“My first job, that I remember, was sitting inside the main door of the hold hospital directing visitors to where they wanted to go to visit patients. There were only two people allowed to visit each patient and only for 10 minutes at a time.
“When their time was up, we had to go and let them know that there were people waiting to see the patient, or if no one was there, tell them the patient needed rest. Many times we were not very popular.”
Donald recalled the old gift shop location “underneath the stairs” and auxiliary members going around with a gift cart with books for the patients.
“They looked forward to us coming each afternoon,” she said.
“I have been happy to be able to support the hospital by working with the auxiliary for all these years. I have met many wonderful people, made many good friends and have lots of great memories.”
It’s a sentiment shared by fellow auxiliary members.
Recently the auxiliary decided to turn its records over to the local heritage society and museum. The records are being catalogued and will be part of the vast historical information available to the public at the museum located in the old post office building at the corner of Main and Wellington streets.
“On the afternoon in the late spring of 1922 a few interested women met at the home of Mrs. J.N. Scott to discuss the possibility of group assistance to the much harassed Mens’ Board of the Mount Forest General Hospital, as it was then called,” a history of the auxiliary establishment states.
“On this day, they (a group of women including Scott, who would become the first president) organized themselves into a purely voluntary group of be known as the Womens’ Board of the Mount Forest Hospital, with Mrs. Scott as president.”
It was a founding that continues to grow and contribute to the local hospital.
Gardin said the auxiliary welcomes new members and anyone interested in joining can call 519-323-0001. She is also urging people to visit the gift shop at the hospital and the downtown thrift shop.
The auxiliary is noted on the donation board at the hospital as a “benefactor,” recognizing the hundreds of thousands of dollars it has donated to the hospital since its founding.
Batenchuk said the tradition will continue.
