The St. Andrews Auxiliary is celebrating more than 60 years of service to the Boothbay region while honoring the memory of a generation of auxilians who have gone before us.

On Wednesday, Sept. 17 at 10:30 a.m., the community is invited to join the auxiliary in the lovely gardens at St. Andrews Village to mark the occasion with the dedication of a granite bench honoring all auxilians who, during their lifetimes, gave so much of their time and energy to help improve the healthcare experience of neighbors, family and friends on the Boothbay peninsula. The event is  generously hosted by St. Andrews Village.

Where it all began

The St. Andrews Hospital Auxiliary, founded in 1952, was born out of a community need to augment the services of St. Andrews Hospital, which first opened its doors in 1908 as a private sanatorium. By 1955 the hospital had become nonprofit. In those early days, the auxiliary did all it could to help support the needs of St. Andrews, whether that meant rolling bandages and answering the phone or raising funds to help in the purchase of hospital equipment.

By 1976, largely due to a dynamo named Erla Kelley, auxiliary fundraising evolved into what we now know as the St. Andrews Thrift Store. Erla finally had to give up working at the shop when she reached her early 90s, but she remained, for the rest of her life, a devoted member of the auxiliary, attending her last annual meeting in October 2013.

It was Erla’s death, at age 99, in December 2013, that sparked a conversation among the members of the board about finding a way to honor the memory and contributions of many auxilians, now gone, who had logged countless volunteer hours working in the hospital, at the village, in the thrift store or by serving as members of the board.

The sudden loss of our “dear heart” Mary Jo Zimmerli in February added a real urgency to our quest. By March a committee of three began exploring some possibilities. Linda Redman, Carol Ostermann and Rose Marie Kreppein, in cooperation with St. Andrews Village, finally brought to fruition the emplacement of a commemorative granite bench in the Memory Garden at St. Andrews Village.

The St. Andrews Auxiliary, as it is now called, continues the work started by our early founders. The changes in the delivery of healthcare to our region necessarily led to changes in what we perceive as our mission, which has been broadened to include giving assistance to any of the many 501(c)3 healthcare services operating on the Boothbay peninsula.

The members of the auxiliary invite you to our celebration to learn more about what we do and we encourage you to join us as we move forward in assisting the healthcare services of our community reach their combined objective of providing the highest standards of medical care and treatment to the people of the Boothbay region.