‘I know that I need to help my community’
Antigonish woman dedicated to hospital auxiliary for 40 years
We all need hospitals at some point in our lives — at a bare minimum, perhaps, to be born and die.
In reality, most of us will need to lean on health care somewhere along our journey.
So far (thankfully), I’ve been a low-end user of the system, but I’ve recently had my first mammogram (which really wasn’t bad) and, last October, I had a worrisome racing heart/dizzy spell that induced a night in the hospital. Thankfully, follow up tests revealed I have the heart of a giraffe — strong beat and slow to race.
My brothers and I were born at St. Martha’s Hospital in Antigonish, where my mom worked as a nurse for more than 40 years and the healthcare practitioners there helped my dad get a lifechanging pacemaker.
ST MARTHA’S AUXILIARY
A hospital auxiliary is a volunteer organization whose members perform work for the hospital without compensation. The St. Martha’s Hospital Auxiliary has a history of more than 100 years of service to the hospital and currently has a dedicated membership of about 30 core members and dozens of volunteers.
In the beginning, volunteers helped with bandages and making meals, but their efforts now are fundraising for funding of new equipment at the hospital.
Judy Mackenzie is one of those members. When she arrived here more than 40 years ago, she knew no one and her husband Mike was joining St. Martha’s as a new doctor. To support the hospital and make new friends, she joined the auxiliary.
During the past 40 year, she has worked full time as a volunteer.
“I am not the only one,” she’s quick to point out. “There are many other members who’ve been part of it longer and have put in as much time.”
Originally, the funding was raised through the gift shop and a variety of other fundraisers throughout the year, including a Valentine’s bridge night, rummage sale, door-to-door campaign, bake sale and Christmas sale.
The Christmas sale morphed into an annual community event called The Jingle Bell Frolic and, 30 years ago, Mayfest (a huge community fun fair that usually raises $40,000) began.
The gift shop has grown and runs a café at the front entrance
of the hospital.
Both the gift shop and café are 100 per cent run by volunteers — combined, they are open about 140 hours weekly (and that doesn’t include all the behind the scenes work that happens).
When Mackenzie began, they raised approximately $30,000 a year and they now typically raise about $200,000 a year.
“When the new hospital was being built, we were asked to contribute $50,000 to the campaign and we thought, how are we going to do this? We did, and it has kept growing and growing since,” she says.
Since 2010, they have raised more than $1 million.
Every year, they decide from the list of capital needs at the hospital what they will buy and sometimes items that help with patient comfort measures.
COVID IMPACT
Like the rest of the world in March 2020, everything came to a screeching halt. They were completely closed from March until August and for other shutdowns since. For three years, Mayfest has been cancelled.
Because the gift shop and café are in the hospital, it’s drawn out their closures even further.
Not only has the impact been financial, they have also lost volunteers and there are not as many new people signing up.
In the past, they had enough of a pool that a volunteer would work once a month at the gift shop or café. They now have people working a few days a week.
The usual $200,000 dwindled to somewhere about $40,000.
WINDFALL RETURNING
Prior to COVID, a local artisan’s craft show called Windfall chose the auxiliary as its charity of choice.
Auxiliary volunteers provided a hospitality room and sold raffle tickets in return for the draw from the raffle. Like everything else, it was also cancelled for the past two years.
During COVID, the organizer came up with an idea to support both her vendors — who couldn’t sell their products — and the auxiliary. She created a local artisans giftbox, auxiliary members helped assemble and sell them, and the proceeds from the sales of 200 boxes went to the auxiliary — about $20,000.
Windfall is northeastern Nova Scotia’s biggest show for handmade fine arts and crafts, and it returned this year on Sept. 24 and 25 at The Keating Centre in Antigonish. St. Martha’s Auxiliary was once again the charity of choice.
HELP NEEDED
Mackenzie says her motivation to help the cause is simple.
“I was a Girl Guide growing up and I know that I need to help my community,” she says.
The auxiliary is looking for new volunteers. If you have free time or you’re a student looking to get experience, you can pop by the gift shop at the hospital to sign up. You can buy a gift at the shop or drop a donation there (they offer tax receipts).
Supporting the hospital is, in turn, supporting your own health and those you love.