It’s the end of an era in Lake Country, as a longtime community charitable group plans to fold.
After more than six decades of raising thousands of dollars for the Kelowna General Hospital, the Winfield Hospital Auxiliary has likely held its last fundraising event.
“I’m very sad,” said Beverly Sorensen, who has volunteered with the auxiliary for over a decade.
“We had a lot of fun over the years. We did a lot of community work. We met a lot of people. We did a lot of laughing.”
However, the auxiliary has struggled to recruit new volunteers, so the group has been forced to make the hard choice to fold.
“We are all tired. We all have other family matters and health reasons,” said president Connie Douma.
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While the group’s current plan is to wind down the auxiliary, Douma would much rather hand it over to a new generation of volunteers.
“I would love for somebody to step in and say, ‘We will take it over and we will start all new,’ with maybe some new ideas or younger people,” Douma said.
The organization plans to cease operations at the end of the month.
“Over the years, the hospital auxiliary has raised a lot of money for the Kelowna General Hospital and one day…people are going to wonder why they are having to pay so much more for their services,” Sorensen said.
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