Raffle to be held for Fidelis House

Fidelis House provides accommodations for people who need a place to stay while getting treatment at the Valley Regional Hospital or those with a family member in the hospital who want to be close to their loved one.

A local raffle for Fidelis House is scheduled for Nov. 30, tickets for which go on sale Sept. 15.

The first prize is a queen-size quilt donated by the Yarmouth Quilters Guild; second is a queen-size donated by Fidelis House (made by the quilting guild of Wedgeport); third is a twin-size quilt donated by Fidelis House.

Tickets ($2 each or three for $5) will be available at the porter’s office at the Yarmouth Regional Hospital and the contact person for the fundraiser is Shirley Hubbard, who has been involved in numerous activities in recent years in support of Fidelis House.

Her late husband, John – who spent time there – wanted to do something for Fidelis House and so he initiated a fundraising effort that Shirley has kept going since his death in 2002.

Fidelis House can accommodate two dozen people. The fee to stay there is $20 per person.

Fidelis House opened in 1992, but its history goes further back.

Shirley Cameron, a Yarmouth County native who later lived in the Annapolis Valley, was undergoing treatment for leukemia when she envisaged a place like Fidelis House, where hospital patients needing accommodations (and their family members) could stay.

She died a few years before Fidelis House opened. (The facility is named after Cameron’s mother.)

According to the Fidelis House website, the facility serves about 2,500 guests a year. Hubbard notes that many of those staying there have been from southwestern Nova Scotia.

Meanwhile, as for this fall’s local Fidelis House raffle, tickets also will be sold on a Christmas basket worth $200. Tickets will go for a dollar and the draw date is Nov. 30.