The lights will be brighter and the display bigger as Nanaimo and District Hospital Foundation has begun a holiday fundraiser.
Nanaimo Regional General Hospital is adorned with Christmas lights and lit up for the month of December for the foundation’s Light the Trees campaign, said Barney Ellis-Perry, foundation CEO. A goal of $3.2 million has been set for equipment for the next phase of the intensive care unit project.
There will be a tap-pay donation option available at the hospital’s Code Brew coffee shop, and people can also give at the foundation’s website.
“The hospital is going to be lit up,” Ellis-Perry told the News Bulletin. “We’re doing it bigger then we have before, so we’re lighting the front of the hospital, … [the] emergency area and we’re also putting a Christmas tree on top of the hospital for the first time. Bigger’s better, right?”
The CEO was the driving force behind the St. Paul’s Hospital display in Vancouver and is bringing that experience to Nanaimo.
“Going to the hospital is scary at any time of year, but it’s terrible, especially, at Christmas when you want to be with your family in the dark days of winter,” he said. “The first rather modest display at St. Paul’s back in 1996-97, it was just phenomenal, people’s response … It made the hospital accessible for people and by being able to donate to it, it gave them a touch point with the hospital that was really special and that’s one of the things we’re trying to do.”
A public viewing event will take place Dec. 13 between 4-6 p.m.
“We’ll have hot chocolate and cookies and fun stuff for kids to do and just see the lights … we’re going to have a large sign that the public can write words of encouragement for our health-care providers, which will then display in the hospital and potentially display in the new ICU, thanking them for all the amazing work they do, under difficult circumstances,” Ellis-Perry said.
The Wenner Group is providing the Christmas lights for the display.
To donate online to the campaign, go to www.nanaimohospitalfoundation.com/light-the-trees/.
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