Hospital auxiliary hosting regional conference

Members of the La Verendrye Hospital Auxiliary are set to host fellow auxiliary members from across the region this weekend when Region 12 East and West come together for their bi-annual conference.
The conference will be held Friday and Saturday at La Place Rendez-Vous.
“It’s a chance for us to have round-table discussions and to get to know each other,” said Joan Mudge, chair of the Hospital Auxiliaries Association of Ontario (HAAO) Region 12 West.
There will be a banquet on the Friday night, with Saturday seeing presentations by several guest speakers and the business meetings.
Guest speakers include registered dietitians from Valley Diabetes and local paramedic John Beaton. Two women also will be involved to teach the conference participants a fun dance.
“We’ve had a really good response [from auxiliary members],” Mudge noted, adding the attendance is looking to be close to 90 people, as opposed to the 60 people they were expecting.
Conference participants will come from Thunder Bay, Kenora, Rainy River, and Red Lake, and points in between.
The joint Region 12 conference is not open to the public but anyone interested is able to purchase an auxiliary membership, which would enable them access to the event.
Annual memberships can be purchased for $5 at the auxiliary gift shop at La Verendrye Hospital.
The president of the local auxiliary is Wilf Sanders, whose term of office will expire in June.
Mudge said the benefit to becoming a member of a hospital auxiliary is mostly personal.
“They get out there. They’re doing something for someone else,” she explained. “They’re feeling good about themselves and that’s the big thing.”
She added auxiliary members often are seen in the hospital gift shop or taking the cart around to different wards and departments.
Mudge said the local communities became partnered with those in the Thunder Bay area after not wanting to be known as the 13th region.
Ontario, she explained, is divided into 13 regions of hospital auxiliaries but instead of being known as Region 13, they became Region 12 West.
And they meet bi-annually at a joint conference.