MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- For the past 18 years, the 800 CHAB Family First Radiothon has been doing its part to help support the Moose Jaw Health Foundation in its quest to make sure the local hospital has all it needs to provide the best life-saving care possible.
Year in and year out, dozens of volunteers take part in the 36-hour event, manning telephones and taking pledges from the hundreds upon hundreds of supporters who offer donations both large and small.
And year in and year out, Moose Jaw goes above and beyond in their support -- this year, a goal of $140,000 was set with the aim of purchasing a suite of cardiac support equipment, ranging from an automated CPR machine to a portable ECG device and new and advanced patient stretchers.
Not only was that goal exceeded, Radiothon supporters nearly doubled it, with a total of $229,800 raised through the day-and-a-half of fundraising.
“I’m just overwhelmed,” said Moose Jaw Health Foundation executive director Kelly McElree. “Moose Jaw is just so generous and so many donations came in. Everything from Simpsons Seeds to Gibson Energy, the big donation from Health Care Rocks presented by Cypress Paving, but it’s all the small donations, too. The people who came in and donated, and the many, many anonymous donations as well, including a private one for $50,000. It’s the spirit of the community and people recognize that.”
As McElree alluded to, the Moose Jaw business community stepped up in a major way, as is always the case. Among the largest donations were $25,000 from Simpsons Seeds, $20,000 from CPKC and $14,750 from Gibson Energy, with those totals just a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of small donations received throughout the event.
One of the major items funds were raised for is a LUCAS Automated CPR Machine, which carries a $16,000 price tag, with other equipment including:
- An ECG Mac 5500 machine for $22,000 to evaluate and understand heart health by recording the electrical activity of a patient’s heart and help medical professionals identify arrhythmias, heart attacks and other heart diseases;
- A Holter monitor, which is a small, portable ambulatory electrocardiogram (ECG) device that continuously records the heart’s rhythms for 24 hours or longer while patients conduct their daily activities; this machine costs $14,000;
- Medication carts for staff to organize, store and have quick access to life-saving medication for cardiac care patients’ needs; the hospital needs four totalling $50,000
- Patient stretchers that are comfortable, adaptable, lightweight and offer advanced mobility to ease physical strain on health professionals; the hospital requires six, totalling $30,000
“All those pieces are going to help save lives every day at the hospital,” McElree said. “There are over 2,900 cardiac incidents every year at the hospital, so every three hours there’s a cardiac incident, and when people donated today, they’re saving lives.”
That holds true for each of the 18 years the Radiothon has been held. When asked how many pieces of equipment the event has purchased for both the Union Hospital and Wigmore Hospital over the years, McElree laughed good-naturedly before admitting it was a question he couldn’t answer.
“It’s hundreds, literally hundreds,” he said. “Big pieces of equipment, fancy pieces of equipment and simple pieces of equipment, too. You can go to every area of the hospital, every floor, every room, doesn’t matter if it’s an operating room or patient room, it’s all community support, every single one.”
The Radiothon also offers medical professionals a chance to tell their stories, with several emergency room nurses taking to the air throughout the 36 hours.
“The community makes advanced medicine happen, and you heard it from the ER nurses, they see the level of support the community gives and that means something,” McElree said. “That’s one of the nice things the Radiothon does, it allows them to tell their stories and it inspires them every day.”
And then, of course, there’s the 800 CHAB staff. Their work on-air throughout the event drove donation after donation and played a crucial role in things turning out as incredibly as they did.
“Over the 18 years of the Radiothon, countless lives from all generations have been affected,” McElree said. “People are alive today because of this Radiothon and the tremendous people who volunteered all that time, put all that effort into every aspect of it. We can’t thank them enough for what they do.”
