Hospital fundraiser exceeds target goal

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on February 11, 2023.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

The Chinook Regional Hospital Foundation held their 13th Annual ‘Care from the Heart Day’ Radio-a-thon on Thursday, and said that over $255,00 has been raised, surpassing their goal of $250,000.

Allan Bartolcic, Executive Director Chinook Regional Hospital Foundation, said they were very excited of reaching their goal and surpassing it, especially doing the trying times everyone is facing due to inflation and economic upheaval.

“It’s tremendous and it all goes back to the engagement within our community, our donors, our sponsors and corporate corporations that have provided funding, local businesses, it just really shows the support of the local hospital and how important the hospital is to our community, and we’re very privilege and honoured to be able to receive and obtain this monies but especially during the trying times that we face financially and not just locally but globally,” said Bartolcic.

He said they had a busy 13-hour day on Thursday where they received donations from walk-ins, over the phone and online throughout the day.

“From what I can recall from last year, we seem to have had even more traffic than ever – we haven’t had that in previous years and it really was a lot of fun,” said Bartolcic.

 He said the money will go to the greatest needs of the hospital from acute care, respiratory emergency, NICU, mental health, wherever the need is.

 Bartolcic said their goal of $250,000 was set based on previous years, and what they thought they would be able to accomplish this year.

 “We’re all going to use the hospital one day, we have in the past, or going to, so I believe that is what inspires our community to support us, because they know one day they would benefit from it as well when they need the hospital services, so it is a great win-win scenario where we all benefit,” said Bartolcic.

He said they try to help fill the gaps and provide as much support as possible. He said one of their latest contributions was of $2.5 million to the expansion of the mental health unit.

“But it could be anything from an incubator to respiratory distress machines, respiratory for the little ones where they put the entire mask over their face, a calorimeter where it counts the calories for the people when they’re going to pre and post-surgery, a jaundice meter, I mean you name it. There’s a need throughout the entire hospital,” said Bartolcic.

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