Park Care Centre raises R65 000 through raffle
PARKTOWN – The Park Care Centre urgently needed to raise money for a new vehicle.
The Park Care Centre announced on 13 October that it had raised R65 000 during a raffle to raise money for a much-needed vehicle.
The centre, which cares for 320 patients, had its Volkswagen Caddy written off in March and was unable to transport patients and caregivers to and from the hospital as well as to necessary appointments.
Jacqui Smith, the business development officer for Park Care told the Rosebank Killarney Gazette that because the vehicle is so essential they decided to purchase a nine-seater Hyundai and reallocate funds intended for nursing to purchase the vehicle.
It was planned that the winner would be announced on 29 September, however, less than half of the 2 000 tickets had been sold, leaving the staff worried that they might not be able to raise enough money to cover the cost of the vehicle. It was then decided to extend the deadline to 13 October by which time they had managed to raise a significant amount of money.
“This money will go towards our daily operational costs. We have 200 staff including the nurses and cleaners so we just wanted to try and raise some money that will make it a little bit less stressful,” said Smith.
“It was a real team effort to organise it and everybody worked hard to sell as many tickets as possible. Everything managed to work out very well.”
Manda Pretorius, the executive manager of the centre said, “We raised enough money to support seven residents for one month. The service here is very costly because of the nurses we hire.
“There’s a lot of expenses so this R65 000 really makes us feel more comfortable. The involvement of the community was absolutely fantastic. We couldn’t have made that money without people from outside Park Care.”
The raffle prize included a three-night cruise to the Portuguese Islands in Mozambique and includes return air tickets from Johannesburg to Durban as well as meals, entertainment and some drinks on the cruise.
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