U.C.W.
UCW -- United Church Women
UCW is the longest serving organization at Mark Street. Meetings are held monthly in Friendship Hall and include tea, coffee and a light lunch followed by a guest speaker from the community. Meetings are held the second Tuesday of the month at 1:00 pm and everyone is welcome; it is not necessary to be a member of the church. We invite you to visit the church website for more details.
Our Guest Speakers for the October UCW Meeting were Gary Lister and Melissa Hope. They shared their stories about travelling to Honduras on a mission trip. We sponsored an Educational Scholarship for one Honduran Child for one year.
Following the presentation, Melissa invited us to sing a few up-beat songs with her. As you can see by these photos, we were her backup band.
At our September meeting we were delighted to be introduced to Bethany Dainton. Bethany is the Manager of Community Giving & Engagement at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre or PRHC.
Bethany brought us up to date on all the magnificent happenings to improve the lives of patients in Peterborough and area. For example, for mental health patients, there is a $1.5 million courtyard whereby fresh air and sunshine can be felt on the faces of some very vulnerable people. 250 nurses were recruited just last year. There is a new MRI machine, two cath lab machines (cardiac angiography systems) and two new cat scan machines which will certainly decrease the wait times for accessing this much needed equipment. Ears perked up in the room when we learned that government funding only covers hospital operations and not equipment so we are doubly grateful. Of great interest was the development of a Peer Support Program where nursing staff are able to check in with another to debrief following an emotionally-charged event.
Maxine raised a question about the long wait times and the lack of privacy for some extremely ill patients in the emergency room. Bethany assured the group that they are very well aware of that and are working to improve that situation.
We were all very impressed with the innovations at our hospital and presented Bethany with a cheque of $500.00 from our UCW. Bethany had a large cheque with the amount at the ready and many of us went up and had our photo taken with her. It was not only exciting but a feel-good time for us all.
Our June UCW meeting was a wonderful Picnic/Pool Party at our President's home. We enjoyed Hot dogs, beverages and delicious salads and desserts. Daryl, Julie and Ray entertained us with many toons. We engaged in some hand clapping, toe tapping and dancing to the tunes. Many thanks to our hostess Jewell for a fun outing and great send-off to summer.
