the broken typewriter

Earlier this month, both Taylor Council and the Fort St. John City Council proclaimed November as Be an Angel Month, in recognition of the Fort St. John Hospital Foundation’s annual fundraising campaign.

The campaign kicked off with a mail-out to previous sponsors, and a personalized Angel ornament to hang on the Angel Tree which will be unveiled at the Be an Angel Gala on November 2 and be on display in the Totem Mall from November 12.

For the past thirty years, the Fort St. John Hospital Foundation has been supporting local healthcare and medical teams by raising funds to purchase much needed equipment for the Fort St. John Hospital and Peace Villa. By having specialized equipment in the local hospital, residents of the region have improved access to a variety of testing and treatments that would otherwise require patients to travel out of the region for healthcare.

This year’s fundraising campaign aims to raise funds to purchase $434,664 worth of equipment – a Lunar Pro Densitometer, an MRI Body Coil, Serene Edge mattresses, butterfly tables, a blood fridge and a Maldi Machine.

The Foundation purchased butterfly tables during previous campaigns, and they were such a hit with the residents of Peace Villa by improving their dining experience, that the Foundation has decided that more are needed. The Serene Edge mattresses are also destined for Peace Villa and offer alternating pressure which helps reduce pressure sores for patients who must spend long hours in bed.

The Maldi Machine is valued at $296,000, and 70 percent of this will be funded through the Fort St. John Hospital Foundation. This piece of equipment is destined for the hospital laboratory and is a microbiology machine, which can rapidly identify bacteria and yeast, benefitting all kinds of patients from neonatal, to cancer care, surgical patients both inpatients and outpatients. By identifying more pathogens than current methods, it will reduce the need to send samples to outside labs, thus lowering costs, reducing hospital stays and improving patient care.

All the work of the Hospital Foundation is made possible by the generous donations of the community, says Kelly Amboe, the Hospital Foundation’s executive director. The Be an Angel campaign is the Foundation’s biggest fundraiser of the year.

“It is through this Be an Angel campaign that we raise 35 percent of the Foundation’s annual revenue,” said Amboe.

The Be an Angel campaign has four parts – the mailout and angel trees; the Be an Angel Gala scheduled for November 2; and the Light a Moose Radiothon from November 20 to 22.

“The Be an Angel Tree represents all the donations we receive through the Be an Angel mailout. It is on display in the mall, and it will be up after Remembrance Day and stay up until the New Year.”

Amboe says the Light a Moose Radiothon is the Foundation’s most popular annual event, bringing in a lot of funds each year.

“Through this, our main focus will be the Maldi Machine,” she said. “Our lab in the northeast receives 18,000 samples a year. This machine promises to have more rapid diagnostics, quicker turnover of diagnostics for shorter time for the healthcare workers, as well as it has an extensive database and can identify the pathogen that aren’t always possible.”

“Thank-you so much for the generosity and hard work the Fort St. John Hospital Foundation commits to,” said Mayor Lilia Hansen. “Anyone that’s had a family member that have been in our hospital, they have all been touched by some piece that the Hospital Foundation has made possible.”