The contributions of the Canora Gateway Lodge Auxiliary members were celebrated during the annual spring tea on Saturday.
Acting as the emcee, Leanne Buchinski, Lodge manager, said she was “very proud to be associated with the Gateway Lodge Auxiliary, an amazing group of individuals who give of their time and resources to make life a little better for the residents.”
Phyllis Kozun, the auxiliary president, thanked the members as well as the staff for pitching in to make the event special for the residents and successful for the auxiliary. She noted that several volunteers came in the morning to look after the hair and make-up for the female residents.
“Canora is truly a community that knows how to come together. That unfaltering support benefits not only the Gateway Lodge, but indirectly, the entire community,” said Kozun. “You enable the residents to feel a part of this wonderful community.”
The auxiliary sets goals for each year to allow for budgeting, but on occasion, emergency purchases are necessary and that makes additional demands of the members, she said. In addition to the goal of purchasing replacement tables for the North Lounge, last spring the auxiliary made an emergency purchase of an oxygen concentrator at a cost of $1,000. Purchasing the 12 tables for the lounge was the conclusion of a two-year project. The tables arrived a week before Easter, in time for the spring tea. The tables have a lift mechanism that makes them portable, as well as a table top tilt mechanism for storage. The tables' height is also adjustable to ensure a resident's comfort by accommodating wheelchairs and Broda chairs. The total cost of this project was $15,000.
Accelerating the project timeline was “a generous donation of $5,000” made to the auxiliary by Praveen Ahuja of Melville. a retired employee of the Sunrise Health Region. His job included work as the physiotherapist at the Lodge.
Though he was unable to attend because of poor health, Ahuja passed along a letter which was read by Kozun.
Much of his message was to “honour, appreciate and recognize” the auxiliary. He said the members’ unending support is a “testament to the nobility of the cause which they have so ably embraced and adopted, and remarkably unselfishly and without compensation. I extend my grateful thanks to them.”
Having served in the health care industry for 49 years and having attained the age of 72, “I feel I may have earned the right to advise the incoming generation of health care providers. Your profession is enshrined in caring for the elderly. It is not a job. It is a privilege, an honour, and a sacred trust to be able to serve the elderly,” Ahuja said.
He praised the auxiliary for its next goal of purchasing about $15,000 worth of furniture for the residents – “not a small amount to be raised at the local level. It once again attests to your devotion, dedication and commitment to improve the lives of fellow human beings in need. It is a time honoured Canadian value that we look after our own!”
Ahuja said he and his wife are very grateful for the opportunity to have worked in Canora since 2003 and “be an integral part of this family. Canora has been very dear and near to us.”
He congratulated Canora for having “two beautiful health care facilities, and you should consider yourselves very lucky. Health care is an enigma, a constant balancing act between demands and priorities. It is not easy to manage it with shrinking health care dollars.
“Money was never enough in the ‘good old days’ and I assure you it will never be enough in the future. We just have to be very wise,” said Ahuja.
Prizes
Raffles and door prizes are always a highlight of the Lodge’s spring tea.
The main raffle winners were: Vicky Ryczak, a $100 gift basket; and Deb Keyowski, $75 in cash.
Winners of the door prizes were: Andrea Barsony, an accent warmer donated by the Gateway Lodge Ladies Auxiliary; Gladys Grozinski, a garden gift basket donated by Renegade Plumbing; and Mary Krotenko, Phyllis Derkatch and Beth Koban, Easter candy vases donated by Arlene Lazaruk.
In the cake raffle, Terry Pasloski and Anne Wyonzek won the cakes donated by Deb Stroeder and Leanne Buchinski.
