The South Okanagan Health Care Auxiliary has donated $50,000 to the Patient Care Tower campaign at Penticton Regional Hospital. The money represents part of the annual proceeds from the auxiliary’s Oliver thrift shop.

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PENTICTON - A $50,000 donation by the South Okanagan Health Care Auxiliary highlights the regional aspect of Penticton Regional Hospital.

The auxiliary, which has operated a thrift shop in Oliver since the late 1940s, is adding its support to the South Okanagan Similkameen Medical Foundation’s campaign to supply the medical equipment for the new Patient Care Tower at PRH.

Auxiliary president Carol Howes said the 62 auxiliary members have been raising funds for PRH for a number of years. Although the auxiliary has not yet made any further funding commitments to the hospital, Howes noted the situation will be reviewed at a later date.

“We all felt that we use the Penticton hospital and we will in the future,” she said. “We want to make sure our hospital (in Oliver) gets everything they need, plus we give to Sunnybank Centre and McKinney Place (seniors care residences).”

Howes praised Oliver area residents for being so supportive of the thrift shop.

“Our thrift shop really works well. We have a great town that brings stuff in the back door and then they come in the front door and shop.”

The store has a sign inside the store listing where its proceeds go. In 2014, the auxiliary donated more than $42,000 to the SOS Medical Foundation, plus thousands more to South Okanagan General Hospital and other charities.

Howes said most people in the South Okanagan realize that PRH is also their regional hospital, since patients needing more specialized care are transferred to Penticton.

“We don’t even deliver babies here anymore,” she said. “So it’s young people and old people that use the Penticton hospital. We all use it.”

Walter Despot, chair of the Foundation’s board, said the $20-million Patient Care Tower campaign relies on support from communities throughout the South Okanagan-Similkameen.

Despot described the South Okanagan auxiliary’s $50,000 donation as “extraordinary.”

“That’s the type of support we need because the goal that we have is immense,” Despot said. “I’m quite sure we can do it, but it’s going to be a big job."

“When we receive gifts of this stature, it does encourage us to keep going and encourages other organizations within the regional hospital district to say: ‘It’s our turn to step up to the plate and look at an extraordinary gift.”

The Oliver Thrift Shop is open Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Construction of the $325-million expansion of Penticton Regional Hospital is expected to begin in early 2016 and be completed by late 2019.

News from © iNFOnews, 2015