While winter may have meant hunkering down for some, the Health Services Foundation’s Board and staff were up to the exact opposite.

Winter is our event season, supporting of both of our amazing Lunenburg County hospitals. It’s remarkable to say that we have recently celebrated the 23^rd annual West Nova Fuels Curl for a Cause bonspiel – an amazing milestone for a charitable event. With the over $47,000 raised during this year’s event, to date, this 3-day marathon bonspiel has raised over $831,000 for Fishermen’s Memorial Hospital in Lunenburg. I want to send a special shout out to our volunteer committee and most especially our dedicated long time chair Anne Cosgrove. Anne has been organizing this bonspiel for over 15 years and been a volunteer since year one. She inspires us all to value our communities.

The South Shore community supports the hospital foundation in so many ways. A prime example of this is our fantastic community pledging over $135,000 to our 13^th annual Gift From The Heart Radiothon on CKBW & Country 100.7. This is an amazing comment to the dedication of our communities to supporting health care and our hospitals.

The Foundation staff, our volunteers and I can see the finish line of the Brighter Days capital campaign.  It’s still down the hill and around the corner a bit – but we can see it! The community has supported us through our first-ever capital campaign in support of the South Shore Regional Hospital Redevelopment Project and has accepted the $9.5M stretch goal which we placed in front of them. This “stretch” has allowed us to commit beyond the Emergency Room, Day Surgery, and Endoscopy expansions; to include an MRI and SPECT-CT scanner (both new diagnostic technologies for the South Shore), as well as a twelve-bed dialysis unit in Bridgewater. We are so grateful for each and every contribution made so far, from large and small businesses, families, individuals and hospital staff.    

The Foundation Board, staff and I want to extend a huge, heartfelt thank you to the donors who make these hospital investments a reality and to the volunteer leadership who have worked selflessly to help us make these donations both (simple and complicated) a reality. 

Now, let’s look forward to the horizon, to the bright and sunny hope that spring brings!