Pana Community Hospital Auxiliary held its annual meeting on Monday, February 4 in the hospital's community meeting room. President Susan Edwards presided over the meeting.

The speaker at the luncheon was Judy Banning, Family Nurse Practitioner of the Community Medical Clinic. Banning gave a very interesting presentation on her four years experience working as a nurse practitioner in Saudi Arabia from 2002-2006. Banning spoke about the many cultural and health care differences between the US and Saudi Arabia.

Roland Carlson, CEO of Pana Community Hospital expressed gratitude on behalf of himself, the Foundation and Hospital Boards, and the PCH staff to all the volunteers for their dedication and financial contributions to our local hospital. He also shared information about current projects underway at the hospital.

At its annual business meeting that followed the program, Secretary, Char Wasilewski read the minutes from the 2007 annual meeting followed by the financial report given by Trina Casner, Pana Community Hospital CFO, for Rosemary Carlson Auxiliary Treasurer.

Bonnie Flagg, who is in charge of staffing the volunteer desk at the hospital, gave a report on the desk for 2007. She reported 31 volunteers donated 1,560 hours of their time covering the front desk. Volunteers also staffed three blood drives in 2007. Virginia Ferguson gave a report on the gift shop volunteers. There are 40 volunteers who keep the gift shop running. Both the front desk and the gift shop are always looking for new volunteers.

The charitable donations of the auxiliary for 2007 included: $12,000 to the hospital for the Community Meeting Room, $2,587 for nursing tuition reimbursements and a $25 memorial donation to the Foundation.

Elections were held to install new officers for the 2008 year. Officers elected were President Susan Edwards, Vice President Freda Brewer, Secretary Char Wasilewski and Treasurer Rosemary Carlson.

The hospital auxiliary is a non-profit organization, which supports the hospital and assists in the purchase of equipment and other items needed by the hospital. The auxiliary operates the gift shop, volunteer desk, organizes and conducts the Annual Holiday Bazaar and helps create hundreds of angels for the Foundation's angel tree. The auxiliary meets the first Monday of every month at 7:00 pm.