What We Do For the Sunshine Coast
Host Lower Mainland Area conferences on the Sunshine Coast every few years.
What We Do For Our Youth
* Sponsor a program for junior volunteers where they have the opportunity to work alongside health care professionals. Helps youth to evaluate what it would be like to have a health care career, and a great many follow through with this ambition.Volunteer hours are often required on applications for post secondary education.
* Send local junior volunteers to participate in BCAHA youth conferences.
* Provide bursaries every year for Grade 12 graduates who are entering a health care program. Memorial funds are often directed as bursaries for 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students who are pursuing health care careers. Our junior volunteers are always considered when making bursary decisions.
- Enhance dollars spent on Health Care by purchasing much needed equipment and services for the care and comfort of patients.
- Support the British Columbia Association for Health Care Auxiliaries (BCAHA) through membership.
- Participate in BCAHA conferences and
Host Lower Mainland Area conferences on the Sunshine Coast every few years.
What We Do For Our Youth
* Sponsor a program for junior volunteers where they have the opportunity to work alongside health care professionals. Helps youth to evaluate what it would be like to have a health care career, and a great many follow through with this ambition.Volunteer hours are often required on applications for post secondary education.
* Send local junior volunteers to participate in BCAHA youth conferences.
* Provide bursaries every year for Grade 12 graduates who are entering a health care program. Memorial funds are often directed as bursaries for 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students who are pursuing health care careers. Our junior volunteers are always considered when making bursary decisions.
A LITTLE HISTORY AND ABOUT US
In the early 1900's the Columbia Coast Mission boats serviced the communities and logging camps along the isolated areas of the Sunshine Coast. They supplied everything from groceries to religious services. In 1930 they recognized the need for a hospital for these communities and so with donated land in Garden Bay and the help of local residents, a hospital became a reality. The name St. Mary's was chosen in appreciation of the help received from members of St. Mary's Church parish in Vancouver who helped design and build a miniature hydro electric plant for the new hospital.The residents of Pender Harbour got together and began fund raising to support the hospital. As the population grew, mostly on the lower end of the coast, it became apparent that a larger, more centrally located hospital was required. In 1959 the Sechelt Indian Band donated eleven acres of their land on the north side of the highway in Sechelt to the Regional Hospital District and plans were made for a new hospital.
Over the next several years, branches of the Auxiliary were established in Pender Harbour, Halfmoon Bay, Sechelt, Roberts Creek, Gibsons and Hopkins Landing.In 1965 a coordinating council was formed to bring together all six groups. It wasn't until 1983 that St. Mary's Hospital Auxiliary became a registered society. The executive replaced the coordinating council and the board was made up of members from each branch and the standing committees. . .Thrift Store, Gift Shop and Loan Cupboard which is exactly what exists today with the addition of an Education Committee and Publicity person.
Today the St. Mary's Hospital/Health Care Auxiliary Society continues to be a major contributor to the quality of health care on the Sunshine Coast. As active members of the BC Association of Health Care Auxiliaries we are consistently among the most significant exceeded only by a few in the large city centres.
Our membership is now 473 strong, our volunteers working over 50,000 hours this past year and raising over 400 thousand dollars, all of which goes to either purchase equipment or support hospital/health care programs on the Sunshine Coast. This commitment and support continues even when we are doing campaigns such as Back the Cat which provided the hospital with a much needed CT scanner.
Telephone: (604) 885-8609
PO Box 917 Sechelt, BC V0N 3A4
