Families of Saskatchewan’s tiniest patients will soon benefit from a generous donation to Royal University Hospital (RUH).
On Monday, Bloom donated $56 thousand to the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation to go toward RUH’s neonatal care unit.
The money was raised through multiple Bloom fundraisers, including the “Images of Love” campaign.
READ MORE: ‘It’s where the most miracles happen’: a story of hope in the NICU
“When we started the venture six years ago, we were look at a couple thousand dollars to give thanks and last year we just hit over $50 thousand and didn’t know where we’d go from there,” Tina Searcy, one of the co-founders of Bloom, said. “So for our sixth annual, crossing that again is pretty awesome.”
The donation was used to purchase incubator webcams for parents to monitor their newborn.
“When a parent needs to leave the hospital at night, or if there’s family that aren’t able to be at the hospital with that child who is spending time in the intensive care unit that they’ll be able to log into an app and actually see the child and see how they’re doing and be able to still have that connection with them,” Jana Len, Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation’s director of annual giving, said.
Officials believe the new technology will help bring peace of mind to parents whose child is in the NICU for weeks, or even months.
“Being able to have that connection and be able to see and have that reassurance that your child is doing OK without you is really special,” Len said. “It’s going to be a huge relief off of a parent’s shoulders.”
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The hospital hopes to have the cameras and app fully functional by August.
READ MORE: Donation to RUH leads to new service to remote Saskatchewan communities
Even though they just presented the cheque, Bloom is already thinking of next year’s fundraising efforts. Planning has already begun for next year’s gala in May 2018, and due to growth in the fundraiser over the years, Bloom is booking for a larger venue.
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