From Nov. 14-27 the Stratford General Hospital Volunteers will host a Christmas edition of the Bids for Beds online fundraiser auction the group held in the spring.
A group of volunteers with the Stratford General Hospital hope to raise at least $10,000 for the purchase of a new hospital bed through an upcoming Christmas Bids for Beds online fundraiser auction.
Running from Nov. 14 to Nov. 27, the auction is part of the Stratford General Hospital volunteers’ commitment to raising a total of $1 million toward the Stratford General Hospital Foundation’s $30-million In Our Hands capital campaign. To date, the volunteer group has raised roughly $400,000, including $150,000 each for a new CT scanner and hospital beds.
“Our main goal is to raise $10,000, which is the base price of a new hospital bed,” said hospital volunteer Karen Gale. “We had a successful (first) auction in the spring. We raised closed to $6,000 and, this time, we were able to reach out to the businesses in our community and so we’re hoping to do bigger and better things and reach our goal.”
With more than 170 lots up for bid, auction organizers say the local business community and other organizations were eager to step up and donate the items, experiences, services and packages that will help the volunteer group reach its goal.
“The business community has been very, very good to us,” said volunteer Nadine MacLachlan. “We’ve got gift certificates. We’ve got products, services, you name it. They’ve been so good to us it’s almost been overwhelming.”
MacLachlan said some of the auction’s most exciting lots include a set of four Toronto Maple Leafs tickets, a season of snow plowing from from Nix Snow Clearing, River Valley tube sliding passes and a beer tasting for four at Mercer Hall.
While the COVID-19 pandemic slowed the hospital volunteer group’s fundraising over the past two years since many of the group’s fundraisers were in-person raffles at the hospital, Gale and MacLachlan said the online auction format has allowed the group to continue working towards meeting that million-dollar pledge toward the hospital foundation’s capital campaign.
And thanks to support from the Anne Hathaway Retirement Residence, the Bids for Beds auction sponsor, the hospital volunteers are one big step closer toward that purchase of a new bed.
“It’s very important to us to put funds back into our community and, through the partnership that we have with the foundation and the volunteers, we feel we can make a difference in supporting our community,” said Anne Hathaway Retirement Residence business development manager Adrienne Routly-Houle. “The funds we give go directly to equipment that supports the hospital and, in turn, supports the entire community with access to health care.”
For more information on the auction, to see the lots up for bid or to just donate to this fundraiser without placing a bid, visit www.32auctions.com/vsgh2022xmas.