By Peggy Chute
In early 2021, the St. Bartholomew’s Health Care Auxiliary in Lytton made the decision to dissolve, because there was a lack of new members and it was difficult to fill executive positions.
In 2020 our president of 25 years, and our treasurer of 15 years, were relocating to other communities. Over the years all the members had given so much energy to our projects, and when we looked around at ourselves we knew we would not be able to continue without an influx of new energy. Over the years, we raised about $325,000 to keep our Emergency Room equipment up to date.
In May 2021 we informed the community about the activities, fundraising, and projects that this group had participated in for 71 years, since it was formed in April of 1949. People were beginning to come forth with a willingness to offer to work with the ideas.
Then, on June 30, the village centre of the Village of Lytton burned in a tragic firestorm.
In 2020 we were fortunate to have the community help us raise $20,000 to purchase a bladder scanner for the ER at the Health Centre. The bladder scanner had not been delivered to the site before the fire. Our members felt that we would like the money to stay in the community to assist with the development of a new Health Centre, and Interior Health acknowledged this idea. Now we have asked the Village of Lytton to keep the money “in trust” to be used for this purpose.
Appropriate procedures were followed with the executive, who are scattered because of the fire, and six other members. Email is a wonderful thing!!
The auxiliary has dissolved as of December 2021. We are finalizing the reports, and keeping any information available to have a record of this organization’s history. One of our members has the photo album of the New Year’s Babies since 1974: it survives because she lived on a ranch, a distance away from the village. The New Year’s Baby of 2021 is being acknowledged with a gift: a boy was born to Dan and Melissa Mundall on Jan. 25, 2021.
The last executive included President N’kixw’stn James (temporarily in Bellingham, WA); Co-Treasurers Jo Johnson (visiting in California) and Doreen Crozier (currently in Hope); and Secretary Peggy Chute (residing in Abbotsford). Our Life Members who had passed away were Anna Greto (2020) and Dorothy Dodge (2021).
editorial@accjournal.ca
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