History of the Burns Lake Health-Care Auxiliary
Access to health care has always been important to residents of the Lakes District. People here have supported patients and health care providers since the early years of the twentieth century.
The Francois Lake Hospital Association – the organization that played a key role in establishing and maintaining the area’s first Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Society (WMS) hospital at Southbank in 1919 – was aided in its work by an ‘auxiliary’ consisting of three women.
According to one source, Alice Keefe, Mrs. Hume Linton, and a Mrs. Copper wrote letters to mail-order businesses like Eaton’s and the Hudson’s Bay Co. seeking donations of fabric and related items. They also organized hospital fundraisers and used their sewing machines to make diapers, blankets, and other necessities for patients.
The WMS withdrew its support from the Southbank hospital in 1924 in favour of the new log hospital on Center Street in Burns Lake. While there was no shortage of local support for the new facility and its patients, it would be years before a formal organization was established for this purpose.
By the late 1920s, Burns Lake had outgrown the old log hospital. A new, much larger one was built at the corner of Fourth Avenue and what is now Highway 16. Like its predecessor, the institution was operated by the WMS, which provided funding for wages, clothing, bedding, and other items. Residents helped supply the hospital with food, but it soon became clear that the facility and its patients would benefit from additional assistance.
Nine women – including Marion Gerow – met at the WMS hospital on April 12, 1938, to discuss the facility’s needs and how to meet them. The get-together resulted in the establishment of a “Hospital Aid Society” designed to “assist in every way possible the work of the Women’s Missionary Society Hospital at Burns Lake.”
Elected to office at the first meeting were Mrs. Bushfield as president (she was also chair of the hospital board at the time), Mrs. Gowan (vice-president), Mrs. T. Greenwood (secretary), and Mrs. P. B. Smith (treasurer). Shortly afterwards, the duties of secretary and treasurer were combined.
The organization’s membership fee was set at fifty cents. Society meetings were held in the hospital on the second Tuesday of every month. They opened with the Lord’s Prayer and included (at least for a few years) a short devotional period and lunch served by a hospital staff member. The hospital’s matron attended and apprised members of the facility’s needs. When the meeting’s business was completed, these dedicated volunteers mended clothing until 4 p.m. or the hospital’s ‘mending basket’ was empty, whichever came first.
Members of the fledgling Hospital Aid Society did more than repair linen. They also visited patients and helped in many other ways. If the facility’s employees needed a hand, aid society members were there to assist.
Fundraising was an important part of the society’s work from the beginning. The main methods of raising money from 1938 to the mid-1940s were teas held in the Elk’s Hall. On July 6, 1938, one such event brought in $30.70. The following year, a St. Patrick’s Day tea raised $58.05 – the equivalent of $1,271 today.
The first purchases made by the new Hospital Aid Society included a rug for the hospital’s dining room ($20.75), a mattress ($18.10), and a suction apparatus ($55). Later purchases included everything from cutlery for the hospital’s kitchen to a birthing bed. The organization contributed to hospital operations during wartime shortages and later supported the construction of a new facility. In the 1940s and ’50s, members introduced house-to-house teas, raffles, and rummage sales. These events and others helped raise funds for several projects, including an upgrade to the local morgue.
The organization’s membership had grown to 27 in 1952, though not all of them attended meetings. Their passion for fundraising generated $1,145, $1,000 of which was given to the WMS hospital in the form of a sewing machine, splints, shower and curtains, an inhalator with additional tanks, and a stretcher.
By the mid-1950s, the Hospital Aid Society had rebranded itself as the "Hospital Auxiliary." Its members still employed tried-and-true fundraising techniques but were constantly looking for new sources of revenue.
In May 1957, 15 members of the auxiliary met at the home of Mrs. Jean Carruthers. The main topic of discussion was, of course, fundraising. There was talk of building a new hospital in Burns Lake, and the group wanted to contribute financially to the project. A month earlier, someone suggested opening a thrift store, and the idea quickly gained traction at the May meeting.
The auxiliary’s thrift shop opened in July 1957. Located in a small cabin on Second Avenue opposite the post office, staffed by the auxiliary’s dedicated volunteers and stocked with items donated by Lakes District residents, it was an overnight success. Despite initially being open only a few days a week – and, in some instances, only on Saturday afternoons – it raised $95 during its first two weeks of operation. The proceeds were all profit because the building’s owner, J. Bickle, didn’t charge the auxiliary rent that month.
By October, thrift store sales totalled almost $700. Business was so brisk that the store frequently sold out. Everything from a bag of beets to a child’s bicycle went out the door in the first few months. Local electronics expert Don Hawse fixed a donated radio for free, and it too found a new home – proving that the thrift store was as much a community service as a source of revenue for health care.
The thrift store generated more than $1,500 in its first five months of operation and convinced the hospital auxiliary to make regular monthly contributions to the hospital building fund. In 1957 and ’58, the auxiliary contributed $4,500 to the project.
Construction on Burns Lake’s new, 36-bed hospital started in 1959, and it officially opened to the public on August 15, 1960. The $432,000 facility owed its existence in part to the hospital auxiliary’s tenacity and fundraising prowess. In addition to its ongoing contributions to the building fund in the 1950s, the auxiliary furnished an entire four-bed ward in the hospital and supplied drapes for all of the facility’s windows.
The auxiliary wasn’t entirely satisfied with the durability of the new window coverings. “The drapes looked lovely, but unfortunately, they shrank a little every time they were washed,” noted one of the organization’s historians in 1966. “In 1965, seven sets of drapes were replaced with ones made of fibreglass material, and the rest were lengthened.”
In 1964, the expansion of the Shell service station forced the hospital auxiliary to find a new home for its thrift store. Although moving the old building was an option, the auxiliary decided it needed a purpose-built space and began looking for suitable property.
Finding a location downtown wasn’t easy. The Burns Lake Public Library Association, operating out of what was the old municipal building, came to the rescue. The library board agreed to provide space on its lot; by summer, work on the new thrift store was already underway.
The new 480-square-foot thrift store, located between the library and the Canadian Propane shop, opened on August 15, 1964. It cost only $1,082.09 to build because most of the work was done by members of the Kinsmen Club using materials donated by local merchants.
Auxiliary members were thrilled. “It’s so much easier to work in these surroundings, and people are so much more inclined to put things back tidily when they are arranged properly,” noted Mrs. Tom Mastin, the auxiliary’s thrift store convenor.
Members of the public liked the new facility, too. Business was so brisk that the auxiliary paid for the new building in three months.
The thrift store has moved several times since 1964 and is now located on Fourth Avenue. A resounding success and a valued community service, it has enabled the auxiliary to make staggering contributions to health care over the years.
In 1991-92, the group gave $100,000 to health care in the Lakes District. Donations of that magnitude have become the norm rather than the exception since then. Between 2021 and 2025, the auxiliary contributed $1,056,741 to health care projects large and small – including a whopping $432,180 in 2024. Most of the funding has been allocated to the Burns Lake hospital and The Pines long-term care home, but other organizations have also benefitted.
The auxiliary’s efforts during its first eight decades of service laid a strong foundation of volunteerism, community care, and enduring civic pride. Its work went far beyond fundraising. Members operated a mobile canteen for hospital patients, donated holiday parcels to patients, former patients, and needy “shut-ins,” and provided a host of other services. The organization even provides a scholarship to deserving high school students.
In 1993, the auxiliary followed a Canada-wide example and changed its name from the Burns Lake Hospital Auxiliary to the “Burns Lake & District Health-Care Auxiliary.” Though the group’s name has changed several times since its establishment in 1938, its commitment to the Lakes District has not.
The auxiliary and its members have been recognized provincially and nationally for their contributions to the community and health care. In the 1960s, an essay about the auxiliary earned the group third prize in Chatelaine magazine’s “club award contest” and a framed certificate “in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the community.” The auxiliary has also won the prestigious Canadian Auxiliaries Recognition of Excellence (CARE) award.
More importantly, the Burns Lake & District Health-Care Auxiliary has earned residents’ undying gratitude. Thousands of hospital patients and their family members have benefitted from the auxiliary’s fundraising efforts and simple acts of kindness. The result is a legacy of service unmatched in the community.
Eighty-eight years after its establishment, the Burns Lake & District-Health Care Auxiliary remains an exceptional organization that has contributed greatly to life in the Lakes District.
Access to health care has always been important to residents of the Lakes District. People here have supported patients and health care providers since the early years of the twentieth century.
The Francois Lake Hospital Association – the organization that played a key role in establishing and maintaining the area’s first Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Society (WMS) hospital at Southbank in 1919 – was aided in its work by an ‘auxiliary’ consisting of three women.
According to one source, Alice Keefe, Mrs. Hume Linton, and a Mrs. Copper wrote letters to mail-order businesses like Eaton’s and the Hudson’s Bay Co. seeking donations of fabric and related items. They also organized hospital fundraisers and used their sewing machines to make diapers, blankets, and other necessities for patients.
The WMS withdrew its support from the Southbank hospital in 1924 in favour of the new log hospital on Center Street in Burns Lake. While there was no shortage of local support for the new facility and its patients, it would be years before a formal organization was established for this purpose.
By the late 1920s, Burns Lake had outgrown the old log hospital. A new, much larger one was built at the corner of Fourth Avenue and what is now Highway 16. Like its predecessor, the institution was operated by the WMS, which provided funding for wages, clothing, bedding, and other items. Residents helped supply the hospital with food, but it soon became clear that the facility and its patients would benefit from additional assistance.
Nine women – including Marion Gerow – met at the WMS hospital on April 12, 1938, to discuss the facility’s needs and how to meet them. The get-together resulted in the establishment of a “Hospital Aid Society” designed to “assist in every way possible the work of the Women’s Missionary Society Hospital at Burns Lake.”
Elected to office at the first meeting were Mrs. Bushfield as president (she was also chair of the hospital board at the time), Mrs. Gowan (vice-president), Mrs. T. Greenwood (secretary), and Mrs. P. B. Smith (treasurer). Shortly afterwards, the duties of secretary and treasurer were combined.
The organization’s membership fee was set at fifty cents. Society meetings were held in the hospital on the second Tuesday of every month. They opened with the Lord’s Prayer and included (at least for a few years) a short devotional period and lunch served by a hospital staff member. The hospital’s matron attended and apprised members of the facility’s needs. When the meeting’s business was completed, these dedicated volunteers mended clothing until 4 p.m. or the hospital’s ‘mending basket’ was empty, whichever came first.
Members of the fledgling Hospital Aid Society did more than repair linen. They also visited patients and helped in many other ways. If the facility’s employees needed a hand, aid society members were there to assist.
Fundraising was an important part of the society’s work from the beginning. The main methods of raising money from 1938 to the mid-1940s were teas held in the Elk’s Hall. On July 6, 1938, one such event brought in $30.70. The following year, a St. Patrick’s Day tea raised $58.05 – the equivalent of $1,271 today.
The first purchases made by the new Hospital Aid Society included a rug for the hospital’s dining room ($20.75), a mattress ($18.10), and a suction apparatus ($55). Later purchases included everything from cutlery for the hospital’s kitchen to a birthing bed. The organization contributed to hospital operations during wartime shortages and later supported the construction of a new facility. In the 1940s and ’50s, members introduced house-to-house teas, raffles, and rummage sales. These events and others helped raise funds for several projects, including an upgrade to the local morgue.
The organization’s membership had grown to 27 in 1952, though not all of them attended meetings. Their passion for fundraising generated $1,145, $1,000 of which was given to the WMS hospital in the form of a sewing machine, splints, shower and curtains, an inhalator with additional tanks, and a stretcher.
By the mid-1950s, the Hospital Aid Society had rebranded itself as the "Hospital Auxiliary." Its members still employed tried-and-true fundraising techniques but were constantly looking for new sources of revenue.
In May 1957, 15 members of the auxiliary met at the home of Mrs. Jean Carruthers. The main topic of discussion was, of course, fundraising. There was talk of building a new hospital in Burns Lake, and the group wanted to contribute financially to the project. A month earlier, someone suggested opening a thrift store, and the idea quickly gained traction at the May meeting.
The auxiliary’s thrift shop opened in July 1957. Located in a small cabin on Second Avenue opposite the post office, staffed by the auxiliary’s dedicated volunteers and stocked with items donated by Lakes District residents, it was an overnight success. Despite initially being open only a few days a week – and, in some instances, only on Saturday afternoons – it raised $95 during its first two weeks of operation. The proceeds were all profit because the building’s owner, J. Bickle, didn’t charge the auxiliary rent that month.
By October, thrift store sales totalled almost $700. Business was so brisk that the store frequently sold out. Everything from a bag of beets to a child’s bicycle went out the door in the first few months. Local electronics expert Don Hawse fixed a donated radio for free, and it too found a new home – proving that the thrift store was as much a community service as a source of revenue for health care.
The thrift store generated more than $1,500 in its first five months of operation and convinced the hospital auxiliary to make regular monthly contributions to the hospital building fund. In 1957 and ’58, the auxiliary contributed $4,500 to the project.
Construction on Burns Lake’s new, 36-bed hospital started in 1959, and it officially opened to the public on August 15, 1960. The $432,000 facility owed its existence in part to the hospital auxiliary’s tenacity and fundraising prowess. In addition to its ongoing contributions to the building fund in the 1950s, the auxiliary furnished an entire four-bed ward in the hospital and supplied drapes for all of the facility’s windows.
The auxiliary wasn’t entirely satisfied with the durability of the new window coverings. “The drapes looked lovely, but unfortunately, they shrank a little every time they were washed,” noted one of the organization’s historians in 1966. “In 1965, seven sets of drapes were replaced with ones made of fibreglass material, and the rest were lengthened.”
In 1964, the expansion of the Shell service station forced the hospital auxiliary to find a new home for its thrift store. Although moving the old building was an option, the auxiliary decided it needed a purpose-built space and began looking for suitable property.
Finding a location downtown wasn’t easy. The Burns Lake Public Library Association, operating out of what was the old municipal building, came to the rescue. The library board agreed to provide space on its lot; by summer, work on the new thrift store was already underway.
The new 480-square-foot thrift store, located between the library and the Canadian Propane shop, opened on August 15, 1964. It cost only $1,082.09 to build because most of the work was done by members of the Kinsmen Club using materials donated by local merchants.
Auxiliary members were thrilled. “It’s so much easier to work in these surroundings, and people are so much more inclined to put things back tidily when they are arranged properly,” noted Mrs. Tom Mastin, the auxiliary’s thrift store convenor.
Members of the public liked the new facility, too. Business was so brisk that the auxiliary paid for the new building in three months.
The thrift store has moved several times since 1964 and is now located on Fourth Avenue. A resounding success and a valued community service, it has enabled the auxiliary to make staggering contributions to health care over the years.
In 1991-92, the group gave $100,000 to health care in the Lakes District. Donations of that magnitude have become the norm rather than the exception since then. Between 2021 and 2025, the auxiliary contributed $1,056,741 to health care projects large and small – including a whopping $432,180 in 2024. Most of the funding has been allocated to the Burns Lake hospital and The Pines long-term care home, but other organizations have also benefitted.
The auxiliary’s efforts during its first eight decades of service laid a strong foundation of volunteerism, community care, and enduring civic pride. Its work went far beyond fundraising. Members operated a mobile canteen for hospital patients, donated holiday parcels to patients, former patients, and needy “shut-ins,” and provided a host of other services. The organization even provides a scholarship to deserving high school students.
In 1993, the auxiliary followed a Canada-wide example and changed its name from the Burns Lake Hospital Auxiliary to the “Burns Lake & District Health-Care Auxiliary.” Though the group’s name has changed several times since its establishment in 1938, its commitment to the Lakes District has not.
The auxiliary and its members have been recognized provincially and nationally for their contributions to the community and health care. In the 1960s, an essay about the auxiliary earned the group third prize in Chatelaine magazine’s “club award contest” and a framed certificate “in recognition of an outstanding contribution to the community.” The auxiliary has also won the prestigious Canadian Auxiliaries Recognition of Excellence (CARE) award.
More importantly, the Burns Lake & District Health-Care Auxiliary has earned residents’ undying gratitude. Thousands of hospital patients and their family members have benefitted from the auxiliary’s fundraising efforts and simple acts of kindness. The result is a legacy of service unmatched in the community.
Eighty-eight years after its establishment, the Burns Lake & District-Health Care Auxiliary remains an exceptional organization that has contributed greatly to life in the Lakes District.
