EARLIER this week, The Daily Advertiser reported on a $138,000 cheque being presented to the Wagga Regional Referral Hospital by its auxiliary. One hundred and thirty-eight thousand dollars: That is an enormous amount of money, yet it represents only half of the story.
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The article went on to report: “Wagga Hospital Auxiliary president Rodney Parsons said it took the tally for this year alone to $260,000, with the op shop on Fitzmaurice Street being well supported by the community.”
The hard-working volunteers of the auxiliary have raised $260,000 this year – and it’s not even August yet. That is an extraordinary achievement and the committee needs to be commended on its efforts.
As WWRRH nursing and midwifery director Grant Carey-Ide told The DA, the auxiliary support was invaluable.
“This dedicated group of people give willingly of their free time to support the work we do in providing the best care to our patients through their donations,” he said.
Nothing should diminish the efforts of the auxiliary, but it struck me as I read the article: this is just one example of the incredible hard work by volunteers and generosity of the community that often doesn’t get the recognition it deserves.
We all know modern life for many people is stupidly busy. People are trying to strike a balance between their work and home lives and many have also added kids to the mix.
Yet there are so many people who regularly find the opportunity to give their time to work as a volunteer, be it at the auxiliary’s op shop or as a referee at amateur sport.
And many, many more are happy to put their hands in their pockets and donate to a worthy cause.
We often hear about “charity fatigue” and how some group or other hasn’t reached their target for some high-profile campaign or other.
Sadly, what we don’t always hear about are the thousands of people putting in so much time and effort within their communities on an ongoing basis.
They’re not interested in high-profile campaigns. They are just trying to give a bit back.
And it happens in virtually every community almost every day, with no fanfare and little acknowledgement beyond the gratitude of the organisation receiving the help.
The Wagga hospital auxiliary and its volunteers should be extremely proud of this latest fundraising effort. I have no doubt the funds were gratefully received and will be put to extremely good use in our hospital.
So hats off to the auxiliary, but hats off too to the thousands of other volunteers who are toiling in our communities to “do their bit” and help out myriad charities and community groups which need these volunteers to succeed.
According to the 2014 Australian Charities Report, Aussies donated about $6.8 billion to charity annually.
Just imagine how many different fundraising activities have been planned and carried out to collect $6.8 billion.
Despite all the talk about our economy shrinking and the bottom line of many household budgets looking a little wobbly, Aussies have, time and again, put their hands in their pockets and helped out someone else.
It goes without saying that there is more to be done, but the bottom line seems to be that our communities remain committed to lending a hand when someone else is in need.
