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Castlegar & District Hospital Foundation’s Light Up campaign starts strong

The Castlegar Hospital Foundation launched its Light Up 2017 campaign with a pledge day.
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Stefanie Zaytsoff, office manager for the Castlegar Hospital Foundation, updated the Light Up campaign fundraising total after several large donations had been made. (Chelsea Novak/Castlegar News)

The local hospital foundation’s holiday fundraising campaign is off to a strong start.

The Castlegar Hospital Foundation launched its Light Up 2017 campaign with a pledge day at the Castlegar Health Centre on Friday, and as of 12:30 p.m. had already raised $23,200 towards its $30,000 goal.

Funds will help support the purchase of a third ACTIV.A.C. Therapy System for the health centre.

“It is extremely important because it helps improve the healing times for patients wounds. I’m told that regular treatment would take six weeks and with the ACTIV.A.C. Therapy System it could be down to two or three,” explained Stefanie Zaytsoff, office manager for the hospital foundation.

Additional funds raised beyond the cost of the system will go towards the areas of greatest need at the health centre or Talarico Place.

“We’re not exactly sure of the current cost of the ACTIV.A.C. machine. The last one that we purchased was $25,000 so IH [Interior Health] suggested a goal of $30,000 in case there was an increase, so it would be a bit of a cushion,” said Zaytsoff. “But we do have a lot of requests from different areas of the health centre so there’s always a need for other equipment purchases.”

The Castlegar & District Hospital Auxilliary Society contributed $18,000 toward the campaign.

“We raise our money and donate it to all health care needs in the community and this is a particularly important one,” Wendy Schwab, president of the auxiliary society, said of the ACTIV.A.C. Therapy System.

The auxiliary society raises funds through sales at the health centre gift shop and the Treasure Shop downtown.

Schwab also encourages any other organizations seeking funding to provide health care needs to contact the Castlegar & District Hospital Auxilliary Society (castlegarhospitalauxiliary.org).

Other big supporters of the Light Up campaign included Tim Hortons, the Kootenay Savings Community Foundation, the Bank of Montreal, Safeway, Dollarama, No Frills, L&L Bakery and EZ Rock.

The Light Up campaign is “extremely important” to the hospital foundation, according to Zaytsoff, as it’s the organization’s one major fundraiser of the year.

“We call on community members to support us,” she said and thanked everyone who has donated so far.

To support the Castlegar & District Health Foundation, visit castlegarhospitalfoundation.org.

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The Castlegar & District Hospital Auxiliary Society donated $18,000 to the Castlegar & District Hospital Foundation’s Light Up 2017 campaign. (Chelsea Novak/Castlegar News)
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Kathy (left) and Chris (right) Sykes, owners of Tim Hortons, donated $1,703 to the campaign. (Chelsea Novak/Castlegar News)
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Aron Burke from the Kootenay Savings Community Foundation presented the Castlegar & District Hospital Foundation with a $4,000 donation. (Chelsea Novak/Castlegar News)
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The Castlegar & District Hospital Auxiliary Society also presented Deb McIntosh from the Castlegar Community Harvest Food Bank with a donation of $3,500. (Chelsea Novak/Castlegar News)