Twenty years and 5 million dollars later the South Cariboo Health Foundation continues its fundraising efforts for the 100 Mile District General Hospital.
Over the years, Brenda Devine, Public Relations and Fundraiser said they were able to equip the hospital with a bus, renovations, upgrades to the Emergency, and big pieces of equipment in the 40 to 50 thousand dollar range in fundraising through the Annual Starry Nights campaign.
“This year, because it’s the twentieth we thought we’d go big. Devine said, “So we’re trying to upgrade the Wound Care Clinic which is part of the ambulatory area of the Hospital along with purchasing a Vacuum Assisted Closure or VAC.”
Devine said it’s kind of like a little vacuum that you apply to the wound area, serious wounds resulting from diabetic situations, amputations, or bad wounds that are not healing.
“These units are around $23,000 and we might be getting 3 of them,” Devine added.
When she spoke about the Wound Care Clinic, she said there are probably around 400 people a month that would access it.
The cost for the Wound Care Clinic upgrade and VAC purchase would be about $100,000.
“It’s probably one of the more challenging fundraisers that we’ve ever done for Starry Nights but this year we’re trying to accommodate this situation. We know that times are lean and we’ve had that before but we’ll just embrace whatever the community can give us, that’s how we always look at it.” Devine said.
Starry Nights start in November and run to January.