THE RALLY OF HOPE SAVES IT’S BEST FOR LAST, RAISING OVER $ 1.6 MILLION FOR KIDS
The Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation’s Rally of Hope raised $1,644,292, surpassing the goal of $1.5 million to support a complete renovation of the Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Fifty-four community teams, major sponsors, and thousands of individual donors combined to raise the highest special event fundraising total ever in New Brunswick.
Rally of Hope 2009 chair Judy Mitchell commended the community’s support of the Hope for Kids Campaign. “All of our community can be very proud of themselves; they did an outstanding job in helping the Hospital’s tiniest and most fragile patients. Saint John will now the home of New Brunswick’s most advanced NICU.”
The NICU will be reconstructed to provide increased privacy for infants, mothers and families. The baby isolettes (incubators) will be replaced with omnibeds and configured in eleven individual “treatment pods”. The Unit will also receive:
- Sound minimization upgrade
- adjustable lighting
- new gas lines
- family privacy space
- enhanced natural lighting
- isolation room with advanced level protections
In conjunction with the space reconstruction, the NICU will also receive the latest in new technology including:
- Radiant Warmers
- Omnibeds
- Nasal CPAP
- Fetal Heart Dopplers
- Vital Spot Monitors
- Fetal Monitors
- Ventilators
While 2009’s event is the last Rally of Hope, its replacement will be revealed this fall in an exciting announcement.
