Each year Liverpool Lions Club resident Santa (Lion Tony Madsen) visits the Childrens’ Ward, New Born Maternity Ward and the ICU of Premature Babies of Liverpool Hospital – soon to be the largest hospital in the Southern Hemisphere..
This is an Annual Event that has been carried out by the Club for over 40 years. A digital photo is taken (prior to Digital Photography a Polaroid photo) of most of the patients in the Childrens’ Ward, the Newborn in the Maternity Section as well as the Premature Babies in the ICU all with Parents when available.
Lion Bob Grimson acted as photographer, assisted by President Lion Yvonne Ross (ensuring that Santa was appropriately positioned),and Lion PP Ollie Lassen acted as runner taking the memory sticks to our printing crew housed in an office area of the Childrens’ Section. The print crew consists of Lions PP Steve and PP Frank Di Bartolo. From the memory stick they produce a 6×4 photo with a Liverpool Lions Overlay as evidenced in the pictures enclosed. These pictures are placed in an attractive 7×5 frame with Club contact details attached to the rear of each frame.
Some of these departments are so large that as many as 3 Nurses’ Stations are in operation. Each Nurses’ Station has a group photo taken. Our printers supply an A4 framed group photo for the Nurses’ Station desk as well as a 6×4 group photo in a5x7 frame is given to each nurse in the main photo.
Three Memory Sticks are used to keep the printers busy and our “Runner” Ollie busy rotating these as well as delivering the completed items to each Nurses’ Station for distribution to the patients and each nurse.
A Lions Xmas Cake is donated to each Nurses’ Station to consume on their tea breaks.
The number of photos taken this year equated to 90 at a total cost of $475-00.
Although there are no photos enclosed of the babies in the ICU section some 33 were taken, framed and handed to the Nursing Staff for distribution to each of the parents. These photos were of a too sensitive nature to request permission to publish. The Nurses were taken in 3 groups as the staffing level is on a one for one basis and it was not possible to have all leave their posts at the one time. This is a gut wrenching experience and it makes us feel so proud of the dedication of the Nursing Staff that ensure the survival of these babies that are not much more than the size of one’s hand.