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Start the (Hockey) Season a Winner with YHF’s Raffle

Yarmouth Hospital Foundation is pleased to announce our Start the Season a Winner hockey raffle!

  • Grand Prize: One Yarmouth County Minor Hockey Association registration* + $500 Canadian Tire gift card
    • Value $1,100 (*winner will have their pre-paid YCMHA registration refunded)
  • 2nd Prize: $100 Yarmouth Junior A Mariners gift certificate (good for game tickets, canteen, or merchandise)

This raffle is fundraising towards the $16,921 cost of a brand new Airwave Oscillometry System for Respiratory Services at Yarmouth Regional Hospital.

Oscillometry is a fast, easy and safe way to assess small airway function. It is innovative technology that helps monitor respiratory diseases such as asthma, COPD or sleep apnea. It measures lung function without strain, requiring only normal breathing; as such, it is especially beneficial for use with children, the elderly and those with neuromuscular diseases or impaired intellect.

Tickets are online only:   1 for $5, 3 for $10, 8 for $20.

Sales end at 11:59pm on November 10, 2022 with the draw taking place at Yarmouth Regional Hospital at 3pm on November 15, 2022.

Thank you for your support. Purchasing your raffle ticket(s) makes a real difference to respiratory patients in the Tri-Counties!

 

Players must over 19 years of age or older and must reside in Nova Scotia.  Full terms & conditions available on our Rafflebox site.

Licence # AGD-319200-22

 

 

Hometown Hero Graves cares about Yarmouth Regional Hospital

It was a busy July afternoon at the Mariners’ Centre, on and off the ice, when the small group from Yarmouth Hospital Foundation finally made their way around more than a hundred students with hockey sticks to connect with NHLer Ryan Graves. The plan was to make good on a winning bid from the WE CARE Radiothon auction held all the way back in February and everyone was excited to do it.

One of the items listed for our inaugural WE CARE Radiothon Auction was a hockey jersey signed by Ryan Graves— an item that came with a small leap of faith. The shirt wasn’t signed back in February, and the winner would have to wait until the summer to meet Graves and get the shirt signed then. Winning bidder Dr. Brian Moses was content with the conditions and only too happy, once summer came, to collect.

Graves, fresh off his first season with the New Jersey Devils and representing Team Canada in the World Hockey Championship, was back in his hometown to run the Ryan Graves Hockey School — a weeklong hockey summer camp program like the ones he grew up going to, or like the ones that Jody Shelley previously hosted. “I would like to follow in his footsteps for doing good things here,” said Ryan. “I’m super proud of being from here. The community is awesome here.”

The Ryan Graves Hockey School is his way of giving back to the local community and he was only too happy to take a little time out to support Yarmouth Regional Hospital. “It’s awesome to get home and to support my hometown, for sure,” Ryan said, meeting with Dr. Moses to sign and hand over the jersey. “The hospital helps everyone so it’s a big positive to get to help raise money for them.”

Thanks again for your support, Ryan! We wish you the best for your upcoming season!

Rolling out to the beach at Bayside

Sometimes, the impact of a project or a donation can be hard to see immediately and only makes itself known over time — especially in health care, where the impact of new equipment and services often takes time to become apparent. And then sometimes, the impact is easily spotted. Bay Side Home, one of last year’s YHF Commitment to Health Care Community Fund recipients, submitted a grant proposal for a project where the impact was as plain as the smiles on their service-users’ faces.

Bay Side Home in Barrington is a long-term care facility for sixty-two residents, providing care at its best by working to meet the needs of the whole person and helping maintain a quality of life. Many of their residents require mobility assistance or are dependent on a wheelchair and these needs can limit their access to community or outdoor spaces. They applied to and were awarded a YHF Commitment to Health Care Community Fund grant last year, and the delightful results are so plain to see in the photographs from their Facebook.

The purchase of the Hippocampe all-terrain chairs allows their residents to access the beautiful area in which they live, and to visit places they once were able to go prior to residing at Bay Side Home. It enables visits to the beaches and seaside trails alongside the Atlantic Ocean, allows for the opportunity to travel and participate in activities around the province and to other outdoor attractions. Along with the physical benefits of time spent in nature, it supports mental health and well-being. Bayside’s Recreation Manager, Megan Lemoine noted, “Being outdoors attributes to better moods, decrease the chance of depression, reduced stress, provide opportunities for socialization and improve cognitive function.”

If you are a part of a registered charity or recognised non-profit in the Tri-County area, please take the time to look over our grant application today. Applications close 30 September, 2022.

Keep the love going!

The last two years have been challenging for all of us, but we have never stopped working for you. Yarmouth Hospital Foundation’s work with your regional hospital has never been so important as it has been during the pandemic and during this time of crisis in Canadian health care. Through the generosity of donors like you, new services become available each year to help reduce the burden of travel on Tri-County residents. Your donations also enable major contributions to initiatives around recruiting and retaining doctors in our area, and fund nine scholarships to the Dalhousie School of Nursing, Yarmouth Campus.

Our resolve to do more to improve the provision of health care in the area served by Yarmouth Regional Hospital has made us look for ways to do things differently. This is why we continue to partner with Will Power, a national movement inspiring Canadians to think differently about charitable giving, and support the causes they care about through a gift in their Wills.

Most of us spend a lifetime contributing to a cause that’s close to our heart. But more and more Canadians are going one step further to leave a gift to charity in their Will. You can make a bigger contribution than you ever thought possible, without using any of the money you need now. It’s also important to consider that a charitable gift in your Will can go a long way towards reducing the amount of taxes to be levied against your estate after you pass. You can read about some of the tax advantages of giving through your Will here, and how some clever financial planning may actually empower you to do more with your estate than you might have realised possible.

You’ve always found ways of giving back. Keep the love going. Support Yarmouth Hospital Foundation in your Will.

September is Will Power Month

We are lucky. Supporters of Yarmouth Hospital Foundation are thoughtful individuals who share a concern for health care in the Tri-Counties now and for generations to come.
Often people think about contributing to the causes they care about with monthly donations or volunteering time, but there is a growing number of people who are going one step further to leave a gift to charity in their Wills. Did you know the Canadian government has created some of the best tax incentives in the world to encourage more giving to charity, especially from your estate? You can make a powerful contribution that will last for generations to come, without taking away from the resources you or your family needs.
When you look into it, you may be surprised to learn that a donation of as little as a 1% of your estate can result in a bigger contribution than you ever thought possible. You are still leaving 99% of your estate to support your loved ones, and you’re not using any of the money you need now.
You can find out more on our Will Power site or you can contact us at (902)749-1669 to find out more.

Giving from her big red heart: the nine-year-old donor inspiring Yarmouth Hospital Foundation

Sophia Moulaison is just 9 years old — 9 and a half, actually — but she’s already learned how to be kind and generous.

A few weeks ago, a hand-written letter arrived in the office of Yarmouth Hospital Foundation signed by Sophia with her name and a big red heart. “You have done so much for our community,” she wrote. “A big thanks to you, Yarmouth Hospital.”

Sophia was visiting her grandparents — Lorna and Brian Amirault — when they opened their mail, including Yarmouth Hospital Foundation’s Spring Appeal newsletter. The letter described our goal, to raise money towards the $70,000 purchase of two multi-parameter vital signs monitors for the Emergency Department. The monitors provide information on blood pressure, oxygen saturation, cardiac activity and more. “I thought I should probably send something back and I didn’t have a lot of money, so I wrote the note and Grammy put some money in there,” Sophie explained.

“Sophia’s letter and contribution have been an inspiration,” said Mary Surette, managing director of Yarmouth Hospital Foundation, when she met with Sophia to bring her the charitable receipt for her gift. Sophia’s letter has been framed and proudly displayed on Mary’s office wall.

This fall, Sophia will be entering grade 4 at Meadowfields, but she already has big plans for her future. “I want to be a nurse when I grow up,” she confessed. In the meantime, she is enjoying day camp and looking forward to a trip to Disney World in August, particularly the roller coasters.  (Mom Melissa Moulaison, a teacher at Maple Grove, said Sophia is a thrill seeker by nature.)

Our young philanthropist has said that she intends to continue to support the foundation and other worthwhile charities in the future. If you’d like to follow Sophia’s lead, you can do so in the following ways:

YHF announces three new nursing scholarships for a total of nine to be awarded this academic year

Yarmouth Hospital Foundation is delighted to announce the creation of three additional scholarships for students entering the Dalhousie University Bachelor of Science Nursing (BScN) program (Yarmouth Campus) beginning this fall. Thanks to a generous gift from an anonymous donor, intended to support education, an endowment has been created that will provide for additional $3000 School of Nursing scholarships every year. This addition brings our scholarship total to nine.

Mary Surette, Managing Director of Yarmouth Hospital Foundation, notes that she is “Simply overwhelmed by this most generous support and the wonderful opportunities that these scholarships will give to our future health care providers and leaders.”

These scholarships join four other endowment-created scholarships provided by donors from the Tri-County area, and two that are funded directly by Yarmouth Hospital Foundation, including the new for 2022 Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity scholarship named for local heroine Sara Corning. “With the current rising need of healthcare workers there is an opportunity for Yarmouth Hospital Foundation to assist in our community,” notes Board Chair Neil LeBlanc, “and to invest in the future of health care in the Tri-County area.”

This year, approximately 36 new students will begin their training; with nine scholarships available, that means scholarships will be awarded to about 25 percent of this year’s entering class.

For more information and to apply, see http://yarmouthhospitalfoundation.ca/nursing-scholarships/

Pictured: 2021’s Nursing Scholarship winners:  (L-R) Faughne Stewart, Brett Reeves, Montana Millet, Savana d’Entremont and Alexa Jeffery

Help us win $20,000 through the Great Canadian Giving Challenge!

Every dollar that you donate to Yarmouth Hospital Foundation through CanadaHelps from June 1st to 30th, 2022, is an entry into a draw for us to win $20,000 that we could put into your regional hospital! “Every $1 donated gives your favourite charity the chance to win so the more you give, the greater the chances your charity has to WIN the grand prize!”

The Great Canadian Giving Challenge coincides perfectly with our Spring Appeal, so we’re pretty thrilled. It’s a great time to encourage the generosity of the Tri-County area towards Yarmouth Regional Hospital, and $20,000 would be a wonderful boost for us. In fact, it would be such a great boost that we’ve decided to sweeten the pot for you, our donors, and have our own draw.

Every donation received by Yarmouth Hospital Foundation through CanadaHelps from June 1st to 30th will get you entered into a draw at the end of the month to win… a prepaid VISA card loaded with $250!  It’s win/win! What would you do with an extra $250 in your pocket?

And what would we do with an extra $20,000 in ours? Well, our Spring Appeal is raising funds towards two multiparameter monitors for you regional hospital’s Emergency Department — those are $37,500 each — so this extra $20,000 means we would be halfway towards purchasing one of these, or maybe even a third monitor for your ED! How exciting is that?

 

What do you think? Do you feel lucky? https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/yarmouth-hospital-foundation/

Spring Appeal 2022: Multiparameter vital signs monitors for ER!

Did you know that your Emergency Department had a total of 27,579 visits last year? That’s an average of about 76 visits every single day of 2021!

Your Emergency Department is in urgent need of new patient monitoring equipment — so the YHF Board has selected two multiparameter monitors for your Emergency Department as the focus of the 2022 Spring Appeal.

Multiparameter patient monitoring equipment is used to track vital signs, like heart rate, blood pressure, etc. and variance or variability in these signs. These state-of-the-art monitors assist with diagnosing conditions such as hypertension, Type 2 Diabetes and cardiovascular disease, as well as helping identify risks such as heart attack or stroke.

Dr. Lauren Maher notes that new monitors are essential for the Emergency Department as, without them, “You feel blind…as a doctor trying to treat the patient. And you need to rely even more so on nursing staff who are already overwhelmed. This equipment, whether it be for cardiac reasons or unstable or potentially unstable patients, is like a constant set of eyes.”

Yarmouth Hospital Foundation is committed to fund a total of eight multiparameter monitors for ED this year — but right now, we’re focusing on getting two of these fully funded by the summer. Each unit costs $37,500, so our target this time is $75,000. Will you help us reach it and purchase this essential equipment for your regional hospital?

You can donate by e-transfer to info@yarmouthhospitalfoundation.ca or online at yarmouthhospitalfoundation.ca.

Together, we can improve patient care and invest in our collective future by keeping Yarmouth Regional Hospital and the Tri-County area at the cutting edge of modern medical technology.

YHF Spring Gala: Thanks for the memories!

From 2005 to 2019, the Yarmouth Hospital Foundation (YHF) Spring Gala was known by many as the fundraising event of the year in Yarmouth!  And what an event it was: even with the glamour and the incredible food, the delightful themes and the dancing (oh, the dancing!), the generosity of our donors always made for a memorable evening.

However, after many discussions, a decision was made by the YHF Board to retire the gala from the Foundation’s fundraising program.  This decision was not made lightly and is aligned with the adopted YHF Strategic Plan.

As we look back on this chapter of the gala, and on behalf of the Yarmouth Hospital Foundation, I want you to know how thankful and grateful we are for your tremendous support.  During the 15 years of the gala over $632,000 was raised for vital equipment needs such as a CT scanner, a portable ultrasound and radiant infant warmers to name a few.

Thank you, this couldn’t have been possible without you.

Thank you for your ongoing dedication towards healthcare and the impact on health and wellness that your support brings to your friends, family and loved ones in your community.

Thank you for making a difference in healthcare.

Thank you for the memories…