Posted by Bob Glindemann
I believe that everyone was aware that this was a big task and I can safely say that it went off like clockwork, on Saturday 7thApril at Box Hill Hospital.
I am not sure how many people we had across the day with the various comings and goings but something in the order of 50+ was probably near the figure. Importantly they came from 16 different Rotary Clubs. We also had a couple of people from the Marsh Foundation who presented this opportunity to us along with one of their vans.
The container arrived at the appointed time and you could see that this in itself was quite a challenging task. So with a good team to start the removals, a team at the container to start the bed loading we were under way. We only had two lifts instead of three but with the usual Rotary organisation we soon had the beds, chairs, bedside lockers and over bed tables flowing to the loading dock.
By 10.15am – the container loading team had 60 beds and mattresses loaded and the doors closed – a really sterling effort. We had also despatched two van loads of lockers, over bed tables and chairs back to the Donations-in-Kind store where the second group swung into action.
In all seven van loads of equipment went back to the store – the last one with the doors tied back as we could not get the very last bed completely into the van. It arrived safely and thankfully did not draw any attention from any of the “powers that be!”
The DIK crew had by then stowed everything in the designated spots in the store and by about 2.30 or thereabouts all was done. That means 27 high back chairs, 84 bedside lockers and 60 over bed tables plus about 26 beds including 3 beds for several local needs.
The side loader arrived at the hospital to collect the container at 2pm and 15 minutes later was on its way back to the store ahead of delivery to the wharf next week and the eventual shipment to the Khmer–Soviet Friendship Hospital in Cambodia. The balance of the beds is destined for a hospital in Java and for several of the other “wish lists” we have on the go.
So to everyone who assisted today either at the hospital or at the DIK Store – thank you for giving up a lot of your Saturday to contribute to a great result for this big uplift project. We could never have done it without your help. Again – many thanks.