Out of the kindness of their hearts: The Auxiliary of the Lakeshore General Hospital

The Lakeshore General Hospital's used book corner, Windmill coffee shop and a gift boutique are run by the Auxiliary.

Birthing kits for new refugees, a new ultrasound machine, support to nurses and patients, and a host of friendly smiles — these are just a few of the services that the Auxiliary of the Lakeshore General Hospital provides to the facility.

It was started by a group of men and women who began the Auxiliary in 1962 before the hospital was built. In fact, they were the ones who helped raise the money to help build the hospital from the ground up. From there, the organization developed three different businesses within the hospital to help acquire funds for various much-needed projects: there's the Windmill Coffee shop, a gift boutique, and the Used Book Corner. It is mostly volunteers who run these ventures, and the items they sell at the book shop are all donated. Last year, these ventures that are all located on the main floor of the hospital made $100,000 in earnings. "We work in close conjunction with the hospital, and they tell us what some of the things that they need are," explained Marjorie Bastien, president of the Auxiliary.

The organization's most recent purchase was a $140,000 ultrasound machine that the hospital urgently needed. The modern machine can diagnose patients much quicker and is regularly used in both the emergency room as well as the clinic.

"Pregnant refugee women go to the birthing centre to deliver, and they really don't have anything by way of supplies, so we are making birthing kits to help them for the first few weeks they are at home with their new baby," Bastien added. "We do a lot of different things like that, and it's very rewarding. We’d like people to know about the Auxiliary and we want them to see that there are a lot of good things happening at the Lakeshore General Hospital."

The 120 members of the Auxiliary also provide a myriad of different services, such as taking on paperwork and making patient files for both the ER and birthing centre. Patient care was another big mandate of the Auxiliary, until the pandemic hit. Prior to that, they used to have volunteers working in oncology as well as interacting with patients on different floors of the hospital, but with the onset of COVID they had to unfortunately limit interaction with patients, and these services have been put on the back burner for now.

Despite this, the Auxiliary is always looking for people who can give of their time to help carry out their various projects and to help serve the West Island community who are both working and staying at the Lakeshore General Hospital.

"We need a lot of volunteers in general, as well as in the coffee shop and gift shop, and we are always looking for people who have the time to help," Bastien said. "It is very rewarding to help the patients and make them feel as comfortable as possible. That has always been the aim of the Auxiliary."

For more information, email [email protected]

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