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Cub Scouts in Nanaimo raising money to present bouquets to hospital workers

Roman Baillie and fellow scouts start GoFundMe as community service project

Cub Scouts in Nanaimo want to show love and appreciation to health-care workers while earning a merit badge.

Roman Baillie, along with Breanne Bastarache and Madalyn Tucker, are working toward a community service award and Baillie started a GoFundMe page to raise money for bouquets of flowers for workers at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital. A bouquet will be delivered with every $25 raised.

The Seeonee Award from Scouts Canada is granted after a community project and 15 volunteer hours in the community, said Matt Baillie, a scout leader and Roman’s father. In addition, scouts must earn 10 levels of outdoor adventure skills badges for skills such as building fires and learning first aid techniques.

In a YouTube video, Baillie said the COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on everyone and said workers at NRGH have been most affected and have given the most..

“Lately, the hospital has been overflowing with COVID-19 patients, overrun by protesters and all parts of the hospital have been short-staffed,” Baillie said. “I cannot bring on more staff … and I cannot stop people from getting sick, but what I can do is show my appreciation for all the hard work the nurses, the cleaners, the care aides and the doctors and all the other members do and I need your help.”

Bastarache is not happy when she sees health-care workers targeted.

“It makes me sad because they’re trying to help the community be better,” said Bastarache.

The three scouts will deliver the flowers along with hand-written cards.

The fundraiser is set to continue until Nov. 2 and the flowers will be delivered over the following week and a half. As of Saturday, $245 has been raised and while the target is $500, Matt Baillie said the three may even look to raise $1,000. To donate, visit www.gofundme.com/f/msv77k-flowers-for-hospital-workers.



reporter@nanaimobulletin.com

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Karl Yu

About the Author: Karl Yu

After interning at Vancouver Metro free daily newspaper, I joined Black Press in 2010.
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