Potsdam Hospital Guild members Hospital Liaison Ellen Nichols, Guild President Joyce Yianoukos, and Guild Secretary Suzanne Dougherty, in Albany this week.

SARATOGA SPRINGS – The Potsdam Hospital Guild last Tuesday was given the Healthcare Association of New York State 2012 Auxiliary of the Year Award that was announced in April.

Awardees were honored at a luncheon ceremony at HANYS’ Annual Institute for Health Care Auxiliaries and Volunteer Leaders in Saratoga Springs.

HANYS established the Auxiliary of the Year Award to recognize the ways that auxiliaries help strengthen New York State’s health care system. HANYS said the Potsdam Hospital Guild demonstrated outstanding achievement in community outreach and advocacy.

Since its founding in 1933, the Potsdam Hospital Guild has focused on giving back to the community, strengthening relationships and supporting the villages and townships surrounding Canton-Potsdam Hospital.

Each year, Potsdam Hospital Guild awards scholarships to students entering a health-related field, pursuing a nursing degree or enrolling in physical therapy and physician assistant programs at local universities. The guild supports the Kinney Drug Prescription Initiative helping community members get medications they cannot afford, donates a basket full of baby items to the first “New Year’s Baby” born at the hospital, and provides for needy families during Christmas.

The majority of the guild’s fundraising donations go directly to the hospital, which is also served by the Edward John Noble Guild of Canton-Potsdam Hospital, for equipment and building projects, including an annual pledge to support a new cancer center, with a chemotherapy infusion room; grants awarded to departments within Canton-Potsdam Hospital to enhance the services and care each department provides to patients; funding and designing a room as part of Hospital for Hospice; and remodeling hospital rooms for use by patients’ families.