Jun 7, 2016
The 14th annual summer Golf Classic sponsored by Kanata Ford in support of the Almonte General Hospital / Fairview Manor Foundation raised more than $55,000 on Monday, June 6 at the Canadian Golf and Country Club.
“Our community cares deeply about their Hospital and Manor,” said Art Solomonian, Chair of the AGH-FVM Foundation. “Spending a day on the links is such a simple and fun way to provide support which results in replacement or new equipment in the hands of our doctors and staff. Patients at the Hospital and residents in the Manor are ultimately the big winners.”
Golfer Greg Hickey thanked participants prior to the dinner. A long-time Almonte resident, his mother is currently cared for on the Rosamond Unit (Complex Continuing Care) at the AGH. Greg said that when family members bring her home for a visit on the weekends, she looks forward to returning to the Hospital. He felt that speaks volumes to the quality of care she receives on a daily basis.
As well as golfing, participants enjoyed hole prizes, raffle tickets and the opportunity to bid on live and silent auctions items which were donated by generous local businesses and individuals. Sponsorship accounted for a large portion of the funds raised. Kanata Ford was this year’s major sponsor followed by the local Rexall store and the BMO branch.
“So many people deserve a big thank you including all our golfers, sponsors, auction item and prize donors, dinner guests, and volunteers,” said Al Roberts, Managing Director, AGH-FVM Foundation. “I especially want to thank our amazing golf committee who worked so hard to make the event a success: Liz Taylor, Gretta Bradley, Josh Gamble, Richard Love, Bert McIntyre, Kathy Stratton, Louise Beckinsale and committee chair Joy Delahunt.”
Next year’s tournament will take place Friday, June 16, 2017 at the Canadian Golf and Country Club.
Feb 14, 2016
Pat Chartrand, 65, spends two mornings a week volunteering at the Almonte General Hospital Day Hospital. He feels it’s the least he can do to support the organization that helped him regain his independence after a devastating health scare.
Pat and wife Lucie have lived in the Almonte area on the Old Perth Road since 1981. They moved out of Ottawa to get “back to the land.” They’d used the hospital a few times, including the birth of one of their children which was a wonderful experience, but Pat says, “We had sort of started to take the hospital for granted.”
Then came the day in December 2005 that he went into the Emergency Department at the Almonte General Hospital. “I’d never been that ill before”, is how Pat described how he was feeling.
After being examined, Pat was sent home with a requisition for blood work which was then followed up with a chest x-ray. This seemed to confirm pneumonia was the culprit. Being an otherwise healthy, active person who ran his own construction business, Pat didn’t think too much more about it.
Six days later and feeling like the pneumonia was getting better, he decided to return to the Emergency Room at AGH because now he was experiencing some left-side weakness.
This ER visit turned into trip to the Ottawa Hospital and a series of Cat Scans. No one in Pat’s family could have been prepared for the eventual diagnosis.
Pat was told he had inoperable brain cancer with about a 10% chance of still being alive in five years. Pat fudged some of the details when telling his family. “I was kind of in shock,” remembers Pat. “I wanted to protect them.”
Never the less, his doctors wanted to begin treatment immediately. They would bombard the cancer with radiation and then try to remove any remaining cancer in surgery.
Six days into the 10-day course of intense radiation on his brain, Pat also underwent another biopsy. He remembers receiving the news. “You don’t have cancer…” What Pat was fighting had been a severe brain infection.
Obviously he and his entire family were over the moon with relief. Pat could look forward to a future with his family but, by then damage had been done and he knew the future would be very different.
After surgery to remove the infection, Pat returned to the AGH and spent three weeks on the Medical Surgical floor waiting for a placement in an Inpatient Rehabilitation program. Being back in Almonte, close to family and friends, was both good for his health and his spirits. Finally he was moved to a rehab inpatient program in Perth. Then he came back to the AGH Day Hospital program for the final step of his recovery.
Pat can’t say enough good things about the staff of the rehab program and AGH’s Day Hospital that helped him normalize his life. “It was a long grind,” he says, having gone from a wheel chair to a walker to a cane. “They helped me gain back much of my independence.”
Volunteering with the Day Hospital is Pat’s way of giving back.
He remembers when he left the program as a patient, how much he missed the place and most importantly the people. So, he started volunteering for the program in 2008 and thinks he’ll continue for the foreseeable future. Lucie began volunteering with the Hospital after retiring in 2014. She helps out in the physiotherapy department. Both are also proud to be donors to the Foundation.
“I’ve learned a lot by being a volunteer that I can now share with the new patients,” says Pat.
According to Peggy Wallace, the Director of the Day Hospital & Occupational therapy, “Pat is an inspiration to many of the patients we see who come through the doors facing the same daunting challenges that he did, all those years ago.”
Dec 16, 2015
3rd Annual Mississippi Mills River Run & Walk in support of Birthing Unit
The 3rd Annual Mississippi Mils River Run & Walk is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 10, 2016. Runners, walkers, hospital supporters, and volunteers are encouraged to circle the date on their calendars and plan on participating. With routes of 3, 5 and 10 km again next year, there will certainly be something for every level of walker and runner.
More activities are planned around the finish line and to keep family members well entertained.
Check back regularly for more information.
Dec 15, 2015
Almonte Civitan Club offers to double your donations to AGH-FVM Foundation
Members of the Almonte Civitan showed yet again they are in the giving spirit on Monday evening, Dec. 14 when they voted to continue the Almonte General Hospital / Fairview Manor Foundation’s matched donation program.
In late November, the Foundation announced that the Ian Keith Taylor General Trust was offering to match all donations received before Dec. 15 up to a total of $10,000.
“Community members have been extremely generous,” said Foundation Managing Director Al Roberts. “When it looked like we would reach the $10,000 match, I spoke to the Civitan executive and they took it to their membership who voted to continue the match up to another $5,000.”
“The Almonte Civitan Club is proud to be a supporter of our local hospital/health care facility,” said Alice Puddington, President, Almonte Civitan Club. “Can you imagine what it would be like if we didn’t have a well- equipped local facility? All those trips to Ottawa or elsewhere! And think of the long waits. When a community has its own facility, those in the area have better health. Civitan Club members know this. A matching program like this one makes our dollars go even further. The challenge is now up to others.”
Funds raised by the Foundation allow the Hospital and Manor to purchase new and replacement equipment such as special patient lifts for the Rosamond Unit, Medical –Surgical floor and Fairview Manor, Holter (Cardiac) Monitors for Diagnostic Imaging and Bladder Scanners for the Emergency Department.
Donations can be made by phoning the Foundation at 613-256-2500, ext. 2296, online at www.almontehospitalfoundation.com or by mail/walk in to 75 Spring St., Almonte, ON K0A 1A0.
