A New Beginning

The Friends of Stewart Memorial Hospital and the SMH Auxiliary hosted a welcome reception on Sunday, June 5 for our new physician, Dr. Ihab Abdelmalek, his wife Nadine and their beautiful six-month-old baby, Yara.  The Tyne Valley Fire Hall  was filled with more than 100 residents.  There were many wonderful words of welcome given by various people and a chance to speak to the Abdelmaleks.  The afternoon concluded with a social time and refreshments provided by the Auxiliary and Friends members.  A special thank you to the extremely talented Shelly Campbell for donating her superb decorating skills to make the fire hall look so beautiful.

Have a look in our Picasa album for more pictures from that fun afternoon.

Solarium Redecoration

In 1973, a solarium was added to the front of Stewart Memorial Hospital.  The funds for this major project were donated by James Henderson, a resident of Brookline, Massachusetts at the time who had grown up in Freeland, PEI.

The solarium has received donations from both the SMH Auxiliary and the SMH Foundation in the past, supplying decorations and comfortable chairs for the use of hospital patients and residents. The room is also used by family members of patients and by outpatients receiving treatments, so it well used.

This spring, the Auxiliary were pleased to pay for the installation of beautiful new blinds, two new table lamps and a hanging plant.  Hospital staff repainted the room and it all looks wonderful and serene.  Many thanks to Auxiliary President Doreen Wooder for her great work on this project.

Spring Fundraising Concert "For The Fun Of It"

Expect an evening of great entertainment on Saturday, May 7 at 7:30 p.m. as the musical group “For The Fun Of It” perform a spring concert at the Britannia Hall in Tyne Valley as a fundraiser for the Stewart Memorial Hospital Auxiliary.

“For The Fun Of It” includes Carl Arsenault, Gwyn Bellefontaine, Eileen Conway-Martin, Lloyd Hardy, Sandra Henderson, Lowell Palmer and Sandra Palmer, and they will fill the hall with their guitar music and voices.  Rounding out the evening’s entertainment will a clogging performance by Gwyn Bellefontaine, a skit by the SMH Players, a 50/50 draw and fudge sale. 

May 2011 marks the 60^th Anniversary of the opening of Stewart Memorial Hospital, so the SMH Auxiliary were delighted when the group offered to perform this special concert as an anniversary fundraiser.  Tickets are $7.50 and will be available at the door.  All proceeds will be used by the Auxiliary to purchase items for the care and comfort of hospital patients and residents.

“60 Years of Working Together” has been the theme of the SMH Auxiliary’s activities over this past year, celebrating over six decades of service to the hospital.  While the hospital officially opened on May 24, 1951, fundraising to build and furnish the hospital started a few years prior, and the Auxiliary were leaders in these initiatives.  The Auxiliary continues to raise thousands of dollars each year.

Montague Memories

SMH Auxiliary members Doreen Wooder, Kit Loschiuk, Thelma Phillips and Wanda Barlow travelled to "Montague The Beautiful" for the semi-annual meeting of the Prince Edward Island Association of Healthcare Auxiliaries.  The PEIAHA executive provided the attendees with an informative and interesting meeting at the Montague Curling Club.  5 ladies were presented with life memberships and each auxiliary provided reports on their recent projects.  All 5 member auxiliaries are doing great work and raising lots of money for our Island hospitals.

Stewart Memorial Hospital Auxiliary appreciates the work of the auxiliaries at the two referral hospitals on PEI, the Prince County Hospital in Summerside and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown.  Both auxiliaries raise hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to buy equipment and provide services. In recognition of their hard work on behalf of all Islanders, we occasionally make donations to each of these auxiliaries.  Kit Loschiuk (right) was pleased to present $1,000 each to QEHA President Kathleen MacDonald (left) and PCHA Vice-president Marie Salamoun-Dunne (center).

We thank them for their commitment to healthcare on PEI.

It was a lovely spring day to travel east to see old friends and meet new!

We Love Fundraising!

Our 24th Annual Valentine's Ball was held on Saturday, February 12 at the Ellerslie Legion Home #22.  We had a wonderful crowd who danced the night away to the great music from Old Habits.  Our community once again provided great support through buying 141 dance tickets, hundreds of raffle tickets and providing lunch for the evening.  We raised $2,210 for the hospital and this money has already been spent on the redecoration of the solarium.  Special thanks to all the businesses and individuals who donated raffle and door prizes.  The support for our great hospital remains so strong.

Our auxiliary members have also been raising some money for our provincial association, the PEIAHA.  We have been filling a "Wish Jar" at our meetings and it looks as though we are going to be having a lot of wishes fulfilled at the rate we are going!  Here's one of our Valentine's Dance helpers showing off our efforts:

PEIAHA Blog

News from PEIAHA President Linda Patterson-Gibson that she has set up a blog for the Association here on Blogger!  It can be found at www.peiaha.blogspot.com.  Great work, Linda!

PEIAHA Executive Visit

Our first regular meeting of 2011 turned into a party when we held a supper reception for the PEIAHA executive.  President Linda Patterson-Gibson and Treasurer Elinor MacLeod made the trip to Tyne Valley from the east while Vice President Norma Getson joined us from the west.

Our ladies provided a lovely meal and everyone enjoyed getting together for food and laughs on a dark January night.  The ladies stayed for our meeting and also updated us on what the PEIAHA have planned for the coming year.  Follow the link in the right sidebar to our Picasa photostream for more photos from this evening.