A team at Birchmount Hospital shares the Love, Scarborough message.SUPPLIED
When the Scarborough Health Network (SHN) Foundation launched the Love, Scarborough fundraising campaign last year, it set an ambitious target: $100-million. Thanks to the generosity of two major donors – Orlando Corporation, whose gift of $75-million was the largest in SHN’s history, and Northpine Foundation – and hundreds of other donations from the community, the target was soon exceeded and has now been raised to $200-million.
Alicia Vandermeer, president and CEO of SHN Foundation, is encouraging the Scarborough community to use GivingTuesday as an opportunity to push the foundation even closer to the new target.
“GivingTuesday is a day when we think about giving back,” she says. “It’s an opportunity for us to recognize that and support those organizations that have an important impact on our lives. For the foundation, it’s a wonderful opportunity for us to engage with people and raise the profile of what we do in the community.”
Ms. Vandermeer says SHN typically sees a spike in donations on GivingTuesday, which tends to continue right through the pre-holiday season. This is usually the time of year when people donate to organizations that have an impact on their lives and who they count on in their community.
She says any donations made on GivingTuesday will contribute to the Love, Scarborough campaign, the success of which is welcome recognition that Scarborough’s health-care needs are just as important as the rest of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Thanks to a generous donor, donations made on GivingTuesday will also be matched – doubling the impact.
The campaign and new funding from the provincial government will go a long way to ensuring the people of the region have equal access to the best health care possible, says Ms. Vandermeer.
“We are one step closer to giving our diverse Scarborough community the hospitals we deserve,” she says.” We have amazing physicians, amazing nurses, amazing staff, but we’ve been providing care in facilities that have not seen major investment or major upgrades in many years.”
Nevertheless, the health-care teams’ perseverance and the community’s resilience have never waned due to what Ms. Vandermeer describes as ‘Scarborough grit.’
“Scarborough’s population includes a large percentage of new Canadians, and many of them are visible minorities. The community embodies the typical immigrant story of making things happen for yourself,” she says. “There’s a kind of humbleness to that and a quiet confidence around being judicious about resources, working hard, caring deeply for the community in an environment where more resources are needed. That’s what we call ‘Scarborough grit.’
Alicia Vandermeer"There’s a kind of humbleness to that and a quiet confidence around being judicious about resources, working hard, caring deeply for the community in an environment where more resources are needed. That’s what we call ‘Scarborough grit.’
President and CEO, Scarborough Health Network Foundation
“We’ve made significant progress towards our $200-million goal so far in the Love, Scarborough campaign, and SHN has expanded the scope of planned improvements to its facilities and services,” says Ms. Vandermeer.
The original plan called for upgrades to a few of the areas of the hospital that had been left behind, such as the over-stretched emergency departments, dialysis care and diagnostic imaging. With more funds now available, SHN is also looking at enhancing services such as mental health care.
Coupled with what the Love, Scarborough campaign funds will be able to achieve is a $1.2-billion investment in SHN announced by the provincial government last year to finance a new patient tower at the Birchmount Hospital and other upgrades.
But big donations and government investment do not mean SHN no longer needs community support, says Ms. Vandermeer.
“We are striving to make the case to our community that their donations are important and will have an impact and help bring about the change we need in health care in Scarborough,” she adds.
Ms. Vandermeer believes heightened awareness of the importance of health-care facilities since the COVID-19 pandemic will help attract community support for SHN’s fundraising efforts.
“I think people became so much more aware during COVID of how much they count on their community hospitals and the Scarborough Health Network,” she says. “During the pandemic, SHN was able to provide the care that was needed in the community. It did a tremendous job of partnering across the community with different organizations and through its own facilities to vaccinate and test for COVID-19. It really helped us raise the profile of SHN and of our Love, Scarborough campaign.”
Ms. Vandermeer says it’s important for people to know that SHN is here for the community.
“We are investing in hospital facilities and equipment, and in making sure that SHN is there for everyone in our community,” she says. “I hope people will think about giving a gift to SHN or reaching out to us to talk about how they might help. We can’t do it alone. Our care needs your care. We need you to back us up.”
Information: shnfoundation.ca
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