Hospital donors celebrated

A DONOR and support thank you afternoon tea was held by Grampians Health Ballarat and Ballarat Health Services last week to recognise community fundraising efforts.

The event was held at Ballarat Regional Soccer Facility and was an opportunity to celebrate the impact donations and support have on local health services.

Attendees included generous individuals, community groups and local businesses who have made donations to these organisations.

Projects which went ahead following donations were on display for donors to see what their money had gone towards.

Sarah Masters, head of fundraising and engagement at Grampians Health Ballarat, said last year saw more than 860 individuals donate to these organisations.

“The diversity of our donors is representative of the diversity of the Ballarat community,” she said.

We have small school fundraisers, donors who have contributed over many, many years to our bi-annual appeals, through to corporate donor support at our annual golf day.”

Donations allow the Ballarat Base Hospital to obtain state-of-the-art equipment and services.

“While we are a publicly funded hospital, we rely upon donations to help provide innovative equipment and services beyond the scope of our government funding, as quickly as possible,” said Ms Masters.

The Velorats Cycling Team are an example of an organisation which made a donation over the last year and member Luke Dunne said it was great to support the cause.

“After many years of participating in the Murray to Moyne Cycle Relay, last year we decided to switch our fundraising activities to support our local public health service, through the Ballarat Health Services Foundation,” he said.

“It’s great to see that our community fundraising activities have a direct impact on patients here in Ballarat.”