Auxiliary To The Cowichan District Hospital
President/Betty Roux
Established in 1932, we’ve provided over 85 years of helping. We annually raise a lot of money to purchase hospital equipment and to provide services for the patients at CDH and the residents at Cairnsmore Place.
Our thrift store (H.A.T.S.), our gift shop (at CDH) and the One Stop Shopping at Cairnsmore Place make it possible to provide care and comfort to the patients and residents. We serve tea, coffee and cookies at both facilities.
We give out grooming kits to the various nursing departments, so when a patient is admitted unexpectedly and needs a comb, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc. they are given one by our Auxiliary. We have a talented group of knitters in our Auxiliary, and we also have ladies that don’t belong but like to knit and donate their finished articles for us to sell or use in one of our projects. Their knitting can be found in our gift shop. As we no longer have our big annual bazaar we have come up with another idea on how to sell our knitted items. We participate in Christmas Chaos at the community centre. We provide baby layettes to any needy mother with a newborn. We have knitters knitting toques for the newborn babies on the Maternity ward. Our Santa project provides Christmas gifts for patients in the hospital that have no one to visit them over the holidays. We also give each resident at Cairnsmore Place a gift bag.
With the government’s permission we are starting to put away funds for our new hospital, Hospice House, or if the need should arise before we have a new one built, our existing hospital. This would be above what we donate annually toward the purchase of equipment for CDH, Cairnsmore Place and the Community.