The Kamsack and District Nursing Home (KDNH) auxiliary has been recognized by an organization dedicated to celebrating seniors.
The Saskatchewan Seniors Mechanism (SSM) is a non-profit, volunteer organization. It acts as an umbrella to bring together Saskatchewan seniors’ organizations to contribute to a better quality of life for our province’s older adults.
On September 30 the Kamsack and District Nursing Home auxiliary was honoured with the Teamwork award at the Saskatchewan Seniors Mechanism (SSM) gala in Regina, held at the Conexus Arts Centre.
The SSM is a non-profit, umbrella organization that brings together other seniors’ groups to facilitate a better quality of life for older adults in Saskatchewan. There were 13 categories, from which The KDNH auxiliary was nominated for Teamwork, against two other teams; the Regina Beach and District Lions Club and Strasbourg Forever…in motion leaders.
“These awards celebrate the contributions seniors make to our society and provide an opportunity for Saskatchewan to be made aware of the contributions of older adults in all aspects of the life and work of our province,” said information on the SSM website. “Award categories include Centenarian, Community Leadership-rural, Community Leadership-urban, Contribution to a First Nations or Métis Community, Education, Fitness, Heritage and Culture, Intergenerational, Lifetime Achievement, Arts and Entertainment, Advocacy, Teamwork, and Senior-Friendly Business.
Representing the KDNH auxiliary at the event were members Myrna Dey and Dorothy Davies and nursing home activity workers Karen Rubletz and Patty Witzko. The banquet, corsages, and gift bags were sponsored by CAA Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan Ministry of Health, Access Communications, Saskatchewan Registered Nurses’ Association and City of Regina, among others.
Lorne Calvert was the guest speaker. Thomas Molloy, Lieutenant Governor and honourary patron of SSM, was piped in, and later made presentations to the winners at this ninth annual gala celebrating provincial senior volunteers.
As a newcomer to the KDNH auxiliary, Dey said, “The award comes as long-overdue recognition for the Kamsack and District Nursing Home auxiliary and its members. For the past 44 years their vision, dedication, and hard work have supported those citizens who once sustained our community but are no longer able.
“To appreciate this span of time, one has only to read its first set of minutes in November 1974: ‘Purchase of colour TV, Christmas gifts for the residents and candy stripers, and a dozen ashtrays.’
“Both candy stripers and ashtrays are now extinct but the auxiliary’s purpose has remained the same: to enhance the lives of the nursing home residents with extras not provided by health region funding,” Dey said.
The group of volunteer women, at this time all seniors, raises its funds from teas, bake sales, raffles, cookbooks, Sask. Lottery community grants and donations (many from funeral memorials.) They were originally used for flowers and plants, gifts, magazine subscriptions, Christmas parties and outings in the HandiBus.
“As their bank account grew, so did the contributions of the auxiliary. They have paid for a host of costly medical equipment, furnishings, and embellishments to the Nursing Home that would never have been possible through its regular operating budget. Examples are Broda chairs, a piano, patient lifts, mattresses, slings, blinds, Suzuki chromatic tone chimes; the list goes on and on,” she said.
The auxiliary was also part of fundraising for the $1.4 million link connecting the Nursing Home to the Hospital in August, 1999, said information received from Dey. This eased access of patients and staff between the two facilities. Since then, the Nursing Home, built in 1965 with 30 beds, and a waiting list of 30, now accommodates 61 permanent residents with two respite beds.
“While membership and attendance at auxiliary meetings fluctuate, and new volunteers are always being recruited, it has been blessed with many lifetime members and a strong executive,” Dey said. “Its current president is Doreen Chorney; Bev Scobie, past (for 23 years) president; Adeline Nykolaishen, treasurer, and Joanne Zarchikoff, secretary.
“Integral to the auxiliary’s successes have always been the nursing home activity workers. As hands-on advocates for the residents, they participate at auxiliary meetings with suggestions about where the money is needed, along with follow-up reports.
“They supervise crafts and games, book entertainers, decorate the solarium for every season, label clothing, organize volunteer chaperones and oversee outings in the HandiBus. In summer, funds from the auxiliary allow activity workers to provide residents with as many outdoor ventures as possible, including trips to museums, greenhouses, a horse ranch, strawberry socials, barbecues and the cemetery where many of their loved ones are buried. In winter they are taken to watch curling at the rink,” she said.
In the spring of 2016 the auxiliary took on their biggest fundraising campaign yet. They committed to the need for a new deck on the southwest grounds of the property.
“This need was obvious on sunny days when wheelchairs crammed onto the small bit of cement at the east entrance, their occupants eager for warmth and fresh air,” said Dey. “To these residents confined by four walls, the outdoor patio would restore a lost dimension, that of direct exposure to street life, the sky, the prairie, trains and changing seasons. It was named the Horizon Project.
“Thanks to support of the 2016 Old Dog Run, donations from local individuals and businesses, ex-patriots with fond memories of Kamsack and the workmanship of Scott Fuller who was the contractor, the project was realized in just over a year.
“It’s a large, wonderful wheel-chair accessible space with two sheltering gazebos, permanent benches and planters,” said Rubletz. “Residents and staff all benefit.”
A letter from a family member to the Kamsack Nursing Home auxiliary perhaps said it best: “Often the importance of the mental and physical activities are overlooked when a formerly active senior has been dealt the blow of no longer living independently. From what we see, your efforts mean such a great deal to the residents, but just as importantly to the families forced to make some uncomfortable decisions.”
The Celebrating Seniors awards take place annually. Anyone can nominate someone for an award. The nominees must be 55 years of age or older, be a resident of Saskatchewan, and have made a significant volunteer contribution to their community. Contact Saskatchewan Seniors Mechanism for more information or for a nomination package.
