Spirit of the North Healthcare Foundation is celebrating 30 years of operations in Northern Health.
The foundation works to provide health care resources to residents of Northern BC and has provided the region with nearly $50 million worth of equipment since it was started in 1991.
To celebrate the organization’s birthday, Rolling Mix Concrete has placed a large Spirit of the North logo on the side of one of their vehicles.
Judy Neiser, Spirit of the North CEO says a few projects, in particular, have been especially beneficial to the region.
“I really feel like the dedicated maternal operating room really is something that services the North, this is the main birthing centre for all of the region and there are close to 1,200 births every year. So that was one that really hit home for us because it was a service that was needed,” she explained.
Additionally, Neiser says the Boston SpyGlass DS System, funded in part by the 26th annual Festival of Trees, was another notable project that ended up being extremely beneficial to the community.
“The four OR surgical video towers and the ortho video towers also made a world of difference to wait times for people being operated on quicker, their recovery time was better and it really spoke volumes to something that the donors who work with us to really have better health outcomes which is really what we like to see,” she added.
According to Neiser, the charitable sector has been struggling throughout the last year, but the pandemic reinforced the importance of having a service like Spirit of the North in the region.
“I think that if nothing else, healthcare has spoken very, very loud that if you didn’t have health care, you didn’t have a lot of things. It didn’t matter what your level of enjoyment on anything in life was because if you didn’t have your health, a lot of it didn’t matter.”
Recently, the organization has shifted their efforts towards senior wellness, mental health and wellness and the Spirit of Healthy Kids Program.
As the Foundation looks ahead to the future, the Board of Spirit of the North is hoping to find new funding opportunities to serve more aspects of healthcare in the North.
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