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Summerland auxiliary provides funding for health services

Money raised through thrift shop sales goes to health-related projects and initiatives
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Volunteers work to set out items at the Summerland Health-Care Auxiliary Thrift Shop. From left are Sosan Boetjer, Kurt Evans, Shannon Toop and Val Carriere. (John Arendt/Summerland Review)

The Summerland Health-Care Auxiliary has contributed $140,000 to health-related needs.

On Oct. 7, the auxiliary presented $100,000 towards the new oncology clinic at the Penticton Regional Hospital and $40,000 for equipment for the B.C. Children’s Hospital.

The $100,000 donation towards the oncology clinic is part of a five-year pledge to raise $1 million for the new clinic. 

At present, the auxiliary is two years into its pledge and has already raised $550,000 towards this project.

The $40,000 donation to the B.C. Children’s Hospital is for the purchase of five state-of-the-art transplant monitoring devices.

These medical devices are for the sickest patients at the hospital. They allow the patients to go home, with monitoring done from within the hospital.

In addition to these two donations, the auxiliary has also provided funding for other health-related needs, said Shannon Toop, auxiliary president. In the summer, the auxiliary provided $32,000 for a van for the mental health association.

All the money donated is raised through the auxiliary’s thrift shop on Victoria Road North in Summerland. The shop is open Tuesday to Saturday, from 1 to 4 p.m. each day.

“We have a wonderful community that supports us,” Toop said.

The auxiliary has around 120 volunteers at the thrift shop, but is continually seeking more volunteers, she said.

The Summerland Health-Care Auxiliary was founded in 1909 and the thrift store opened in 1958.



John Arendt

About the Author: John Arendt

I have worked as a newspaper journalist since 1989 and have been at the Summerland Review since 1994.
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