RBC contributes $7,500 toward MDHCF
May 27, 2024, 11:20 am
Ashley Bochek
Moosomin RBC presented the Moosomin and District Health Care Foundation with a cheque for $7,500 toward equipment and further training for their staff.
Katharine Van Beers, Moosomin RBC’s new branch manager, along with RBC Mortgage Specialist, Angela Gordon, presented the donation last week.
Van Beers says RBC is working on giving back to the community and look forward to more community events and contributions in the future.
“We are trying to get back into the community with different grants. We also do community grants for $1,500 so people would have to let us know about six weeks ahead of time and we submit the application and we come and volunteer our time, and then RBC provides $1,500 to the charity. I think when Sherri-Ann was our banking advisor they had a record of 36 donations, so that is pretty incredible.
The funds for the $7,500 donation come from the RBC Foundation.
“This donation enables us to purchase new mannequins for CPR training, ensuring our nurses have up to date technology for this very important acute care skill,” said Wendy Lynd, Secretary-Treasurer, Moosomin and District Health Care Foundation. “The new mannequins have improved capabilities that allow students to access data—in real time—that is crucial for fine tuning their CPR skills.”
Lynd said the donation would also support Dementia training for Long Term Care healthcare workers at the South East Integrated Care Centre.
Supporting the community
Gordon says the Moosomin branch is very committed to supporting the community.
“The branch is very well tenured. There is lots of long term names at the branch such as Andie Hodgson, Angie Turpie, and Sherri-Ann Lemieux. I think everyone is very passionate about the community and supporting every initiative we can, whether that is kids, or health, there are so many different things. I think the branch as a whole is very passionate about helping the community.”
Lynd adds, “Part of it was National Nurses Week, they wanted to do something with that, so that’s part of why they made this donation.”
Lynd explains the foundation notified the hospital staff of the donation to see where it was most needed.
“We put a notice out to the managers of what was happening and put a ball park amount and then Joni came back with the mannequins for primary care, and also came back with the long-term dementia training so it was kind of perfect timing for both of those.
“It is going towards the eight mannequins for the primary healthcare and for the long-term care DementiAbility training for the staff,” Lynd said.
Lots of donations from the community
The Health Care Foundation has received many donations from the community through the years.
“The amount of donations the healthcare foundation takes in every year really depends,” Lynd explains. “It fluctuates from year to year depending on bequests, but I would say around $150,000 would be the donations in an average year.”
Tomlinson adds, “The odd time we will get some large bequests and that really makes a difference when people show their support in that way.”
Lynd says requests from staff are given to the foundation to decide on priorities.“They prioritize their requests and we then decide where donations should go. The managers are really good at getting an equipment list they gather up and present to the foundation at board meetings. It is always categorized as far as level of need and then the board makes the decision from that.”
She says the foundation receives a lot of support from the community.
“It is great getting these donations. It is awesome for our hospital, patients, and staff,” Lynd says.
Dementia training
Goodman says with this donation from RBC nurses can train for DementiAbility care in Moosomin.
“They can train here now in house. We have two DementiAbility trainers who train the nurses here, which actually cuts the cost of the training in half. So, we can do the training now in house which saves travel, replacing staff on the floor because it is a two-day training. It helps with a lot of initiatives in the building.
“It is huge. When we have staff that come to our facility, and we can say how awesome the community support is and how awesome the foundation support is, and a lot of the things that we have.” Goodman continues.
“It is honestly a huge pull for staff to come to our facility because they see how amazing the support is and all the amazing things we have.”
Kristen Sauter says this contribution not only benefits Moosomin, but also the surrounding area.
“It is a huge benefit for patient care, for this community and a big surrounding area. It is huge for staff recruitment and retention as well. The support is so appreciated.”
Amy Adams adds, “It is helping keep our health services as close to home as possible, also.”
The mannequins will be used not only in Moosomin, but in surrounding communities as well.
Sauter says, “Moosomin is definitely the hub for our area and we know we see a lot of patients travel from rural areas and smaller communities to here. It is huge for the area in general.”
Lynd explains the community’s support fundraising for health care.
“The Health Care Foundation’s role in fundraising is evolving. We haven’t done a lot of direct, active fundraising, but we have relied on donations coming in and we’ve had great support from our community and local area toward our equipment needs.”
“I think when we start with the CT scanner that will be our first one where we are actively fundraising. We haven’t officially started fundraising for the CT Scanner yet, but we have had great support so far with it, with donations coming in even before we’ve officially started the fundraising. But once we have the official word we will be focused on fundraising for the CT Scanner. That will be a priority and it will be more an active fundraising campaign.”
New manager
The presentation to the health care foundation was made by RBC Moosomin’s new Branch Manager, Katharine Van Beers who just moved from Ontario.
“I have been out to meet the team and everyone before, but my family and I just landed last Thursday morning, in Moosomin. We bought out near Round Lake so I have a little bit of a commute, but my girls started school today so I am hoping it went well. They are in Stockholm.
“We have only been here for a little less than a week.”
She said she is enjoying the area so far. “It is really good here. All of Saskatchewan, really. The people are so lovely and it’s just nice to have some space. The sky seems so much bigger out here than in Ontario.
“We are loving it.”
