Border guards plan lengthy fundraiser - May. 06, 2010
BY KATHY BOCKUS
kathy@stcroixcourier.ca
ST. STEPHEN – Canada Border Services Agency officers here are getting ready to the hit the road for their community.
These past few weeks they’ve been walking and jogging, planning and preparing for a 116 kilometre relay that will kick start the Charlotte County Hospital Foundation’s fund raising efforts to raise $350,000 for the new satellite dialysis unit for the CCH.
Mike Bone, 23, a CBSA officer, is organizing the event, which will take place May 15. The relay will begin at 6 a.m. at the Saint John Regional Hospital in Saint John and conclude at the CCH between 10 to 12 hours later.
“In essence, this will symbolize us making the trip for each of those dialysis patients who have been travelling to Saint John to receive their treatments,” said Bone.
Bone said a number of officers have already committed to making the run and have been gathering pledges from family and friends. Some of those already registered will walk one or two kilometres, while others plan to run 20 kilometres.
Bone said he wanted to do something for his hometown while at the same time promote health and wellness among his fellow employees.
He said his fellow CBSA officers took the idea and “literally, ran with it.”
Bone competed as a runner at St. Stephen High School and ran on the University of New Brunswick’s (Fredericton campus) varsity team.
“We just wanted to show people that we are members of this community and that we care about what happens here,” said Bone. “We wanted to do something for the community.”
He said all the CBSA officers who participated in the relay will gather to walk the last mile together from the Charlotte Mall to the hospital.
Steve Backman, chair of the CCH Foundation said he and the other board members were all “very excited and pleased for all the efforts put forth by CBSA to help bring dialysis to St. Stephen.”
“To choose such a symbolic way to give to the campaign really underscores the grassroots support and appreciation the community has for those patients living with kidney disease,” said Backman.
Backman confirmed that the foundation’s target was to meet or exceed raising $350,000.
In late January, Premier Shawn Graham pledged more than $1.3 million for a satellite dialysis unit at the Charlotte County Hospital. At the time of the announcement, the premier said having a dialysis unit at the CCH would make life a whole lot easier for the seven patients in the St. Stephen area who currently have to travel to Saint John three times a week for dialysis.
Rick Doucet, MLA for Charlotte-The Isles, was so pleased with the premier’s announcement for the dialysis unit that he made a public vow to personally act as chauffeur for the patient who had the first dialysis appointment.
The Charlotte County Hospital Foundation was ready at the beginning of 2009 to launch a campaign to raise the $350,000 it had promised the government in a partnership agreement, only to learn from the Department of Health there wouldn’t be any dialysis unit funding in its 2009 budget.
The 2010 government funding includes $360,000 in operating funds and $1 million in capital funding. The new satellite unit is expected to open in early 2011. It will have five haemodialysis stations and will operate three days per week, 12 hours per day, with the capacity to accommodate 10 patients.
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