Region 5 Auxiliaries Celebrate 60 Years
Members of The Friends of the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Region 5, gathered at Pinnaroo recently for their sixtieth anniversary and conference.
Around fifteen volunteers from Pinnaroo, Tintinara, Lameroo and Meningie gathered at the Pinnaroo Hotel. They were welcomed by Region 5 and Friends President, Pauline Linke, before Pinnaroo volunteer, Tiffany Atze introduced the guest speaker for the event.
Guest speaker, Shayleah Hayward from Murrayville told those present about the journey of their now eight-year-old son Parker who suffered a heart failure. He was flown to the Adelaide Women’s and Children’s Hospital for emergency surgery to save his life. He spent ten months in the hospital before being sent to Melbourne to await a heart transplant. Shayleah spoke about the moment they were told that Parker was going to die, and the heart wrenching decision made, to instead, hang onto the hope of a heart transplant even though he was deteriorating daily. Parker was the first South Australian sent to Melbourne Children’s Hospital for the life-saving transplant. On the very day that Parker was due to be taken off the waiting list, a suitable heart became available. Parker is now doing well and is just another story of a child who owes his or her life to the hospital.
After the guest speaker, reports were received by each of the auxiliaries, State President, Kaye Steer and Regional Chair, Pauline Linke. Denice Richards reported on the recently held State conference at the Royal Coach Motor Inn. Present at the conference were members of the Australian Professional Firefighters Foundation who have formed a joint venture with the Friends of the WCH. Their members donate four dollars from each pay packet to the burn’s unit of the hospital.
A video was shown of various hospital staff in different units of the hospital thanking the volunteers for providing funds to purchase equipment to help them care for children. The purchase of these pieces of equipment was only made possible by the fundraising efforts of the auxiliary members. The auxiliaries have raised more than eleven million dollars over the past twenty-eight years.
Pauline Linke was re-elected as President with Denice Richardson, Proxy/Assistant President. Next year’s Regional conference will be held at Tintinara on Monday, 20 June 2022.
Meningie volunteer, Marianne Cunneen declared a vote of thanks to the Pinnaroo Auxiliary for hosting the event.
The cutting of the sixtieth anniversary cake was conducted by Denice Richards (Tintinara), Kaye Steer, State President and Pauline Linke, Regional President before the guests enjoyed lunch and chatting with fellow auxiliary volunteers.
All Friends auxiliary groups continue to welcome new members who can join by either contacting the Friends office on 8161 8445 or visiting the website.
