Keeping In Touch 12 November 2021
Its 43 days until Christmas – yay! The Caregiver Advisory Council and the Mission Committee have been busy working behind the scenes to make this Christmas extra special for our caregivers. The theme this year is ‘Let light shine out of the darkness’, and there has been some light with restrictions easing somewhat. At least we can now gather in small groups and catch up with family and friends. Christmas is looking promising. The hospital however is still in COVID-19 peak, with DHHS mandating no visitors and elective surgery returning to 50% as communicated recently. As a result, the caregiver and children’s Christmas parties will not go ahead this year. The good news is that the team have been planning decorations for the hospital, music and elf-on-the-shelf adventures. We will need your help on a few things: • Do we have an elf-on-the shelf enthusiast, who would like to help with Elf? • Are you a budding musician who could spare an hour or so, to help with Christmas carols? • If you have any ‘common area’ decorating ideas, please let us know • Is there a charity you would like the hospital to support? In place of our Children’s Christmas party, we are putting together a Caregiver Children Benefits program. We are hoping to have discounted entry fees to a number of local businesses (for a limited time) to help kids enjoy the Christmas holidays. At this stage it looks like there are no restrictions on Christmas decorations this year so the ‘Christmas Decorating Competition’ is on!!! Be creative and please do not use hospital medical supplies (creative but expensive). We want to thank you for all your hard work. You really have been superstars as we have navigated another COVID year. Perhaps the biggest gift we can give each other is kindness and compassion. Let’s make the next 43 days joyous and hopeful!