#GivingTuesday Kicks Off Christmas Wish List Campaign

#GivingTuesday is an international day of giving, taking place directly after the sales of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It’s a day where people rally behind and support their favourite causes.

The Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation used the excitement of the day to kick off their annual Christmas Wish List fundraising campaign, that includes 10 pieces of vital medical equipment for the Hospital. Totaling $107,546, the Wish List includes a Fetal Telemetry Monitor for Labour and Delivery, a set of Sinoscopy Instruments for the Operating Room, an Intracranial Pressure Monitor for the Intensive Care Unit and six Vital Signs Monitors for use in departments across the Hospital.

Chair, Board of Directors of the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Foundation, Jody Nesti commented on why #GivingTuesday was chosen to kick start the Wish List campaign this year. “Our donors are incredibly generous all year long, but especially at Christmas. We wanted to build on their generosity and so we’ve challenged our community to help us cross one of the items off our Wish List today. We’re looking to raise $5,079 by midnight tonight so we can purchase 1 of the 6 Vital Signs Monitors on our list.”

Continued Nesti, “A couple of our donors graciously agreed to come on board to help us achieve our goal. It is my utmost pleasure to announce that KEM Construction and Hilary Kaszor have agreed to match all donations made on #GivingTuesday, up to a maximum of $3,000, to help us get to our goal of a new Vital Signs Monitor.”

To ensure gifts are received by the deadline of midnight Nov 29 to take advantage of dollar-for-dollar matching, there are a multitude of ways to give.

The importance of Vital Signs Monitors to the Hospital cannot be understated. Craig Kozlowski, a Clinical Nurse Specialist with the Cardiovascular and Stroke Program explained, “One Nurse on a day shift can be using this somewhere around 15 times per day, and in the Emergency Department it could be up to 36 to 40 times. This isn’t even when their patients are critically ill, this is just our routine care. The data from these Monitors ensures we can get treatments into the patient to help save their life quickly; whether we need to get them IV fluids, put in oxygen, or other measures.”

One patient who has benefitted from having access to Vital Signs Monitors is Mona Hardy. “I really appreciate the care I’ve been provided at the Hospital and I’m comforted to know that Vital Signs Monitors are available as part of my care,” she said.

“Countless patients and families count on the generosity of donors to ensure we have the very best medical equipment so we can have care close to home,” said Amanda Bjorn, Vice President, Human Resources, Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre. “While staying close to home is important all year long, I’m sure you will agree that being home, surrounded by loved ones at Christmas is what we all yearn for, and with your donations today, you’re helping make that possible.”

Donations to any item on the Christmas Wish List will be gratefully accepted starting today and throughout the entire month of December. Gifts made now provide the best gift of all – the gift of time together.

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