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Groups collaborate on new medical equipment purchase

Collaboration from five community groups helped bring a new urine analysis machine to the Ponoka Hospital and Care Centre.
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Five community groups banded together to raise $7

Collaboration from five community groups helped bring a new urine analysis machine to the Ponoka Hospital and Care Centre.

Contributors celebrated the purchase Thursday, March 4 at the hospital with the representatives from the Ponoka Lions Club, Masons Britannia Lodge of Ponoka, Ponoka Elks, the Ponoka Legion and the Ponoka Kinettes taking part. Each group contributed $1,500 to the purchase of a Clinitek Advantus urinalysis machine costing $7,500.

Called the Pee Project Group, these five clubs banded together in a showing of what true collaboration can do in a small community.

For Lorianne Hinton, lab and x-ray supervisor, this new machine will bring efficiency to the urine testing done in Ponoka, which runs more than 1,000 urine tests a month.

“It leaves us (room for) growth for moving forward,” she told attendees.

Lions Club member Bill Chorney said when the club was approached last fall by the hospital they realized some help would be needed. Discussion ensued with other clubs and in several months, the funds were ready.

“What we have today is a good demonstration of what hard work will get us,” said Chorney.

“We always thought, ‘What a way to raise funds in a hurry,’” he added.

* The photo caption had some incorrect names and was corrected March. We regret the error.