Community & Business
21 October, 2022
More hospital ‘friends’ needed
THEY may be only a small group of people but the Atherton Hospital Friends of the Foundation volunteers punch well above their weight when it comes to raising money to buy medical equipment for the facility.
The small group of just 26 people are responsible for organising and hosting events like the weekly bingo at the Atherton International Club and pro-viding services like the hospital trolley to raise money that has been used to buy various equipment over the years including ventilators, pressure mat-tresses, IV machines and weighing machines.
But the group needs more volunteers to be able to achieve much more.
“We currently have 16 people doing the trolley service which sells things like magazines, fruit, sweets and news-papers to patients but we need more people to fill the gaps,” group secretary Jo Barnes said.
“The trolley run happens once a day and it only takes an hour so it’s not a lot of time to give up.”
Volunteers are needed for the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month, the second Sunday of the month, the third Saturday and the third Monday of the month.
The other major source of funds for the group is the weekly bingo that has been held at Atherton International Club for decades, first by the Hospital Auxiliary, as it was known then, and now by the Friends of the Hospital group.
Volunteers Beverley Prescott and Josie Raso, who have been involved with the bingo events for 30 years, work with five other volunteers to run the games which attract around 60 people every Tuesday and bring in around $500 a month.
Ms Barnes said the foundation would like to do more events but they needed people from the community with experience in organising and man-aging events to join them as a volunteer.
“We have done some events but not for awhile due to Covid. We did a cent sale at Malanda which brought in $5000, and we would like to look at different ideas but we need people with experience or skills in the events area to join our little group,” she said.
She said donations to the Friends of the Foundation group came from a variety of sources.
“Last year, we had a $20,000 donation from a local lady, and then we had another person donate $10,000 specifically for artworks for the new hospital,” she said.
“We have one lady who picks up cans and sells them to recycling – she also gets all the crutches, which, once used, go to the tip. So she picks them up and sells them to the recycling and gives us the money.”
Local organisations like the Malan-da Theatre Company also chip in, with proceeds from the sales of their Calendar Girls calendars, as well as events like the Malanda Christmas Street Party which gave the proceeds from its raffle to the hospital group. There also donations tins at various
“It all adds up,” Ms Barnes said.
People can also go to the foundation website (www.fnqhf.org.au/make-a-do-nation) to make a donation and nominate which hospital it goes to.
Anyone who wishes to join the Atherton Hospital Friends of the Foundation can do so by emailing volunteer@fnqhf.org.au or call Ms Barnes on 0448 750 353.
