Winter evenings will get brighter as donations illuminate trees at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital.
The Nanaimo and District Hospital Foundation’s sixth annual Light the Trees fundraising campaign has switched on for another holiday season with its sights focused on raising $1 million for the hospital’s essential projects.
“We’re raising funds for a CT scan, we’re raising funds for the new hip and knee clinic … [and] laboratory and surgical departments equipment,” said Janice Krall, the foundation’s chief development officer.
The new hip and knee clinic will open at Colville Medical Centre, across the street from NRGH on Dufferin Crescent.
Donations to the campaign will also help buy patient monitors throughout the hospital.
New for this year, the foundation is also raising money to buy two vans that will take mobile clinics to people in and around Nanaimo who don’t have easy access to medical services.
The mobile clinics, Krall said, will support people with mental health issues, youths and others most at risk, and will be at schools, areas of the downtown and anywhere people are in circumstances that prevent them from easily accessing health-care services.
“The vans are going to be really special to the community because they’re going to serve our most vulnerable who really struggle, sometimes, to know where to get help, ask for help, so it’s a … gap in the community that we’re going to try and address,” Krall said. “We’re looking at one, maybe two vans. Those are critically needed right now.”
The first of two mobile clinics is expected to be roadworthy sometime in March.
The campaign officially started Dec. 1, and runs until Jan. 1. Every week throughout December, the more donations that come in, the more Christmas lights on the trees at NRGH’s entrance will be switched on until the campaign meets its fundraising goal.
To learn more about the Nanaimo and District Hospital Foundation or to light a tree with a donation to this year’s campaign for essential projects, visit www.nanaimohospitalfoundation.com.
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