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In June 2010 the Peel Health Campus Foundation held an Opening Ceremony to mark the handing over to the WA State Government of the new Ralph & Patricia Sarich Paediatric Wing located at the Peel Health Campus. The Wing was opened by Hon Dr Kim Hames, WA Minister for Health.
The unveiling of the plaque for the new Ralph & Patricia Sarich Paediatric Wing by Hon Dr Kim Hames, WA Minister for Health – with
Ralph Sarich and Arthur Marshall OAM, Chairman of Peel Health Campus Foundation.
See the Minister of Health’s Media Release here.
The new building had been funded by donations made to the Foundation by more than 1500 organisations and individuals primarily located in the Peel Region.
The Peel Health Campus Foundation was formed in 2004 as a free-standing organisation with the primary objective “to promote the prevention and the control of Diseases in human beings in the Peel Region”.
In June 2005 the Foundation launched its first major project, that being to raise funds to build and equip a dedicated paediatric wing at the Peel Health Campus. This was a facility much-needed in the Peel Region, as sick children normally had to be transferred to hospitals in the Perth area, with its consequential effect on both the children and their parents.
The Foundation Board, chaired by Arthur Marshall JP OAM and comprising leading members of the local community, spent the next four years attracting donations from local businesses and other organisations, and also from many individual members of the community – until in early 2009 the stage was reached where there were sufficient funds available to commence the build of the new facility. Funding had also been sought and obtained from the WA State Government, and from major charities based in Western Australia – for example Variety WA.
The contract for the construction of the building was awarded to a local Mandurah builder, JM & ED Moore. Ground-breaking took place in July 2009 and the facility was ready for the Opening Ceremony which took place on 18 June 2010.
Throughout the five years that the Foundation has spent obtaining funding for the facility, there have been a number of regular activities which have become part of the calendar for Mandurah people.
A health-promoting annual event has been the Mandurah Island Challenge, an event which has enabled the community to take part in many different ways – by walking, running, swimming or kayaking. As part of this event there has been a Schools Walk – a popular shorter walk for the younger children. In all, more than 1,000 participants have taken part each year in the Mandurah Island Challenge.
Guests being shown around the new Wing after the official opening ceremony.
Another popular annual event has been the Charity Auction Dinner held each year in November at the Mandurah Performing Arts Centre. Thanks to the generosity of the individuals who donated the auction items, and the generosity of the diners who attend the function and bid for the items, significant sums of money have been raised each year towards the Foundation’s goal.
The third major annual activity has been a Charity Golf Day, which has been kindly sponsored by a major donor organisation, and which attracts a large number of teams of golfing enthusiasts from across the Region.
The widely-recognised need for this facility caught the imagination of the whole Peel Region, with the result that many local clubs, schools and other organisations nominated the Foundation as the recipient of proceeds from their fund-raising activities. It is impossible to mention them all, but recent examples of such fund-raising include a Quiz Night organised by the Lions Club of Falcon, the annual Christmas Carols evening held in Mandurah by the local ladies singing group “Voices in Harmony”, and a “Happy Walk” held by the pupils of Greenfields Primary School in Mandurah.
One of the four double rooms in the Wing.
The room sponsored by the Mandurah Murray MayDay Club.
The Foundation Directors have obtained significant donations from a number of local employers, including Alcoa, Western Diagnostics Pathology, Skywest Airlines, and many local Real Estate Agents and financial institutions.
Following successful marketing by the Foundation, two major charities have contributed towards the ongoing success of the Paediatric Wing – the Ronald McDonald House Charities have funded the inclusion of an inside playroom and an outside play area, plus a parents’ room with overnight facilities when required, and Variety WA have made a major donation which granted them the Naming Rights for four single-bedded rooms in the new Wing.
Over 100 local retail outlets in the Mandurah, Falcon and Pinjarra area allowed the Foundation to place collection tins on their counters. With the help of an average of six dedicated volunteers who regularly visit these outlets, the Foundation has benefitted from the generosity of their customers to the extent that over $48,000 has been obtained via these collection tins over a four-year period.