KHCA still a major contributor to health and care of residents

Desktop – Leaderboard

Home » KHCA still a major contributor to health and care of residents

Posted: May 22, 2023

KHCA still a major contributor to health and care of residents

Submitted by Kimberley Health Care Auxiliary

Part Three

Even with the Kimberley Hospital closed, the Kimberley Health Care Auxiliary (KHCA) continued to raise money to purchase equipment for the care of local residents.

They donated a centrifuge machine to the lab at the Kimberley Medical Clinic, bought several air beds for the Kimberley Hospice Society to make terminally ill patients more comfortable by preventing bed sores, donated $50,000 to the Kimberley Health Centre Society for capital improvements to the front entrance, and had raised $93,000 for the new x-ray machine which arrived in March of 2005.

Because of these purchases many Kimberley residents have been saved several trips to Cranbrook for some blood work and/or x-rays.

Foundry East Kootenay under construction.

Recent examples of donations are: 2020-$75,000 for a Spec-T machine: 2021-$60,000 to outfit two rooms in The Foundry, which is currently under construction in Cranbrook, and $60,000 to the Kimberley Health Care Centre; 2022-$100,000 to the East Kootenay Foundation for Health, which distributes the funds as per our requests-this time to the operating rooms.

Another focus is to support community projects for a healthy Kimberley such as safety items for the Aquatic Centre and free swim days, a Seniors’ Connection Programme, Seniors’ Wellness In Motion [S.W.I.M.], Food Bank, Family Resource Centre, Healthy Moms Healthy Babes, school lunches, Kimberley Community Response Network, and the purchase and placement of three benches for Rails-to-Trails.

There are presently three main groups supporting the KHCA, the Kimberley Thrift Shop since 1967, the Marysville Thrift Shop since 1991, and the Remakers’ Market since 2022.

In 1957 a group of Marysville women met at Mrs. Archibald’s home and formed the Marysville Hospital Auxiliary. [Several of them had been working with the KHA and perhaps didn’t want to regularly commute all the way to Kimberley!]

For years they knitted, sewed, held teas and raffles, and once a week did hospital duties. All money raised went to purchasing hospital equipment.

In 1990 they opened a thrift shop in the Wooden Nickel Mall on Front Street in Marysville. Soon the space proved to be too small so they moved into a building owned by Jim Ogilvie that used to have a corner store. After several years there, they moved across the street into a former childcare facility. When the Marysville Thrift Shop became a member of the KHCA, they regularly made huge contributions and continue to do so to this day with their 54 keen volunteers.

In 2022 another enthusiastic group formed to not only raise funds for the KHCA, but also, to prevent textiles from going to the landfill. They reclaim clothing items that are not saleable then create them into new products with much cutting and sewing. They call themselves the Remakers’ Market and are located in Room 5 downstairs at the Kimberley Thrift Shop. Their motto is ‘reuse, reclaim, relove!’ Come and check them out.

The Loan Cupboard started in 1943 in a tall granary-type building behind the old hospital. Joyce Brown and other nurses felt it necessary to supply residents, free of charge, with needed medical equipment to use at home. Some Cominco employees made and donated things like canes and crutches and those items along with a few bedpans and wheelchairs made up their stock.

Later, when the new hospital was built, the Loan Cupboard came under the care of the Public Health Nurses who had offices in the basement. It became known as the Nurses’ Loan Cupboard until the hospital closed in 2002.

Both the Public Health Nurses and the Loan Cupboard were moved to the new courthouse building on Victoria Street where they operated until 2005.

The Loan Cupboard then moved back to its former spot in the basement of what was now the Kimberley Health Care Centre. Eighteen dedicated and knowledgeable volunteers look after cleaning and repairing the huge stock of items as well as loaning them out free of charge.

At this time the Loan Cupboard came under the umbrella of the KHCA, which has donated thousands of dollars to purchase up-to-date equipment and now to pay rent. This is just another service to the local citizens.

So, with all of these groups working together for one common goal, the KHCA continues to be a major contributor to the health and care of local residents. All of this is possible because of the generosity of the community in the multitude of donations made, the shoppers who purchase items at our two thrift stores, and of course the hundreds of dedicated volunteers from over the years.

Hats off to these former volunteers!

2008 Awards

Life Members

Mae Blunden

Vera Cecco

Alva Dovell

Charlotte Gustafson

Jane McGregor

Tory McKinnon

Sally Malone

Jean Morrison

Pat Oslund