The Blanchard Valley Health System (BVHS) Auxiliary and Volunteer Services recently made significant contributions to Blanchard Valley Hospital (BVH) and Bluffton Hospital.

In support of its mission to serve BVHS and the community, the Auxiliary presented a check for $86,000 to the BVH emergency room.

The emergency room will use these funds to purchase medical equipment such as a glideslope, a scope with a camera; a rapid infuser, which administers ten times faster than a normal IV pump and five additional patient stretchers.

Additionally, the BVHS Auxiliary donated $10,605 to Bluffton Hospital, in conjunction with $7,900 residual funds from the Bluffton Hospital Auxiliary.

These funds will be used to purchase portable communication equipment for staff; a tourniquet smart pump for the surgery department and a few pieces of non-medical equipment for the medical and surgical area of the hospital.

“Given we were in a recovery period from the COVID-19 virus, I am very proud of all the volunteers and the money we were able to raise for the gift to Blanchard Valley Health System,” said Jodi Karhoff, BVHS Auxiliary treasurer.

“We are still looking at other requests so we can disburse the remaining funds raised in 2021,” she added.

These donations were made possible through the Auxiliary’s 2021 fundraising efforts and retail entities, which include hospital gift shops and the Nearly New Shop.

The Blanchard Valley Health System Auxiliary in 2019 celebrated 70 years of volunteering and has more than 400 volunteers.