By JESSE GRAHAM
FERNTREE Gully’s Angliss Hospital received a $68,000 donation last week for state-of-the-art equipment, raised in a matter of months by passionate volunteers.
The Angliss Hospital Ferntree Gully Auxiliary president, Colleen Marke, handed over a cheque for $68,887 on Tuesday 24 March at the group’s 75th Annual General Meeting (AGM).
Paying for portable vital signs monitors, an Electrocardiogram (ECG) machine, a bilimeter and numerous other items, the donation cheque was happily accepted by the hospital’s chief of Clinical and Site Operations, Ben Kelly.
Last week’s donation accompanies $4548 already donated to the hospital this financial year, making a total of $73,435, and Ms Marke said the group had donated a grand total of $1,391,147.79 since 1961.
Auxiliary secretary, Denise Gravatt, said this year’s donation was one of the largest the group had contributed to date.
“This is an extraordinary achievement, as we have a lot of competition extracting money from the public for fund-raising activities, as well as other op-shops in close proximity,” Ms Gravatt said in her report to the 50 attendees of the meeting.
The group has run the auxiliary op shop in Ferntree Gully since 1961, and also puts on a number of fund-raising events, such as sausage sizzles, plant sales and even an annual fashion parade, featuring items from the shop.
Before the shop opened, the Angliss Hospital was a small bush hospital, and the the group donated pillows, crockery and sheeting to the hospital’s matron.
Lactation consultant, Helen Gordon, made a presentation at the meeting, explaining how the auxiliary’s fund-raising has resulted in benefits for patients.
Ms Gordon said that special koala chairs had helped breastfeeding new mothers, so much so that one mother asked if she could take the chair home with her.
She said that new bilimeters also helped nurses to assess a baby’s blood concentration of bilirubin without the need of a blood test, which was less invasive to the newborns.
“It makes it much, much easier to do our jobs,” Ms Gordon said.
“It’s because of your generosity that we are able to run these services.”
A number of Eastern Health dignitaries, including chief executive Alan Lilly, were present for the meeting, and Mr Lilly personally thanked the members of the group for their support.
He said that the members had shown “fantastic commitment” to the hospital over 76 years, and thanked them for their wonderful work.
Mr Kelly echoed these statements in accepting the cheque on behalf of Eastern Health and the hospital.
“It’s a small, but large, cheque, which goes to show the importance of the contribution you make to the hospital,” he said.
Ms Gravatt, in her annual report on the auxiliary shop, said the business had another successful financial year, despite a changing market and repeated instances of people dumping rubbish outside the shop.
“It is an ongoing challenge trying out new ideas to keep our shop user-friendly and just when we think all is good, there is another challenge around the corner,” she said.
“However, the strange and unusual shoppers we seem to get make us laugh a lot and at the end of the day, we are happy in the knowledge that we are working to supply funds and other items to our wonderful Angliss Hospital.”
Ms Gravatt also paid tribute to June Goudie, who received a long service award for 50 years of service to the auxiliary.
“She is an inspiration to us all,” Ms Gravatt said.
