People in the Madawaska Valley area can help their hospital get a nice Christmas gift this year, a new ultrasound.
Plans are underway for St. Francis Valley Healthcare Foundation’s Tree of Life campaign. Letters are being mailed out to past donors, expressing the need for the $200,000 machine for St. Francis Memorial Hospital.
Donor Relations Co-ordinator Christine Hudder told Moose FM about the campaign, as a team of volunteers got the letters ready at the Barry’s Bay legion last week.
“We include bulb cards with our letters and people make donations in memory or in honour of somebody,” she says. “And each bulb card is represented on our main tree at The Railway Station. The lights there represent the bulb cards and the donations that were made.”
The bulb cards will be added to the tree in a lighting ceremony planned for the evening of Friday, Dec. 2.
The letter that past donors will get in the mail will tell the story of Dawn Hannah and how an ultrasound at St. Francis Memorial Hospital helped doctors monitor his aneurism for several years. The story is being shared to hit home the importance of fundraising for a new ultrasound
“It’s so important because the ultrasound machine is one of the most important pieces of equipment for the diagnostic imaging department,” Hudder says. “It can diagnose anything between a blot clot to an aneurism. If we didn’t have it, people would be travelling to Pembroke or Ottawa to get this kind of care.”
