Club president Leo Hulme said members contributed 574 hours of volunteer labour to three events in April. The Easter Bunny Hunt accounted for 311 hours of that and the rest went to the Alexandra Volunteer Fire Brigade awards dinner and the Dunstan Charity Golf Tournament.
The club gave a $4000 donation last week to Dunstan Hospital palliative care services, which was the proceeds from the golf tournament and the auction which followed the tournament.
It also gave a $5000 donation from the 23rd annual bunny hunt, held at Easter, towards stem cell research aimed at treating and finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes.
Golf tournament convener Barry McCall said the event had been run for five or six years and three-quarters of the money raised came from the auction following the day's golf, which included prizes sponsored by many businesses and individuals.
Last year the tournament proceeds went to the hospital's CT scanner appeal. Dunstan Hospital allied health manager Christine Brown said the donation this year would be used for a special mattress for palliative care services in the community.
The Roho mattress could be fitted over an ordinary mattress and was excellent for patients at the end of their lives, or anyone with very sensitive skin.
''It doesn't need an electrical pump so there's no noise and we're told by patients the mattress is very comfortable,'' Mrs Brown said. Mr McCall said his father, who died of cancer 18 months ago, used one of the Roho mattresses in his final weeks of life -''it was brilliant''.
Mrs Brown said the hospital had some of the mattresses on its ward but the new one would add to the stock to be used for palliative care services in the community.
''This donation will improve our pool of mattresses and help us meet the demand for them.''
