(SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska - The Gift Shop in the Ketchikan Medical Center lobby may look little but it is responsible for big things. Since 2000, proceeds from the shop have funded almost a half million dollars in projects at the Medical Center and PeaceHealth Medical clinics in Ketchikan and on Prince of Wales Island.

Gift Shop Committee Volunteers
Photo courtesy PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center

Last Saturday, the volunteers who staff the Shop met to decide this year’s projects. They had $38,000 to divvy between the $80,000 in requests from department managers.

After presentations and explanations of the various requests, the Gift Shop Committee awarded:

• $400 to Home Health for shampoo basins

• $500 to Speech Therapy for iPad tablet apps for therapy

• $250 to Physical Therapy for a TRX training kit

• $5680 to the Medical/Surgical Unit (inpatient care) for chairs for visitors

• $5795 to Med/Surg for sleeper chairs

• $1750 to Med/Surg for high back chairs for patients

• $2770 to PHMG Prince of Wales for a specialize treatment chair

• $14,545 to Urology for a bladder scanner

• $4855 to New Beginnings Birthing Center for a bilirubin check meter

• $1600 to the Sleep Center for portable testing equipment

Grants over the years have ranged from $125 for a carpet cleaner for the Child Development Center to $26,000 for a Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter (PICC) — an IV method used for patients with difficult IV access or who require long term IV antibiotic or drug therapy.

It would not have been possible without the volunteers who staff the shop most weekdays from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Some days however, the shop has been closed. No volunteers.

“We really need more people,” said Carolyn Wilsie, long time President of the Auxiliary that has run the shop for decades. “Volunteering is a way to give back to our community. For me, it keeps me in- volved and happy to be in a place that is necessary and convenient for many. Currently we are open Monday thru Friday 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM and could be open many more hours if more volunteers were available.”

Information about being a volunteer is available at the Shop.

Source of News:

PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center
www.peacehealth.org/ketchikan

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Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska

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