Two programs affiliated with Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare are benefitting from their partnership with a local non-profit.
In Honour of the Ones We Love, a fundraising organization that provides support to cancer patients and their families and offers programs for children with special needs, presented HDGH with a cheque for $50,000 during a media event at the hospital on Wednesday. A kids' breakfast program, offered by HDGH's Regional Children's Centre, will get $35,000 of the money. The rest will go toward HDGH's mental health programs for women.
The money was raised through two fundraising events held in partnership between HDGH and In Honour of the Ones We Love. They included a Wine and Dine Tour held in November of last year and an International Women's Day event called Unsung Heroes.
Rita Gidillini, a child and youth worker with Regional Children's Centre, said their enormously popular breakfast program will benefit for years to come thanks to this donation.
"Every day they'll have cereal, milk, juice, cheese, and then every day there's a different thing on the menu along with a hot breakfast on Tuesdays," said Gidillini. "So this is going to be all year round because our kids stay during the summer. This is going to give us three years of sustaining it."
Gidillini said students who are clients of the RCC, who typically are on campus from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., are often there by 9 a.m. to take advantage of the breakfast offerings.
With the increasing awareness of mental health taking place, HDGH is getting support for their adult programs. Patrick Kolowicz, director of health and mental addictions at HDGH, says their women's program, run in cooperation with the Canadian Mental Health Association, calls the donation a blessing.
"Even one person helped with this money is going to be a success," said Kolowicz. "The more that we can help people recover, the better."