August 17 , 2007 - Media Release

Sweet Thoughts for Sick Kids

AMHERST, NS (August 17, 2007) – The ice cream treats may be cool on a hot day but nothing is more cool (in the fashionable sense) than sending warm thoughts to a child during an overnight stay at the county’s regional hospital.

The Amherst Dairy Queen (DQ) store is doing just that through a donation of thirty “DQ Bears” for the pediatrics unit at the Cumberland Regional Health Care Centre. (Shown to the left local pediatrics staff pose with DQ Bears for sick kids.)

“We’ve been extremely grateful for DQ’s support on this project”, states the Foundation’s managing director, Joe Gauthier, “and when you walk into the Pediatrics unit with an armful of bears, the staff are extremely pleased and thankful that they have something special to give a child when an overnight stay is required”.

In the past four months 28 children have been admitted and discharged from overnight stays in Pediatrics with the averaged number of overnights being 4.5. In 2006, there were 78 children with an average of 2.15 overnights. “It’s a soft, warm, caring feeling – all wrapped up in a bear to help a child get through a night away from his or her family and home,” continued Gauthier, “it truly is the little things that can make a difference in the life of a child during a difficult or stressful time.”

For the past several years, the local Dairy Queen (DQ) store in Amherst has been supporting the Teddy Bear Fund of the Cumberland Health Care Foundation and has recently launched the DQ Bear. Donations collected at the DQ in Amherst help to provide bears to local sick children at the Cumberland Regional Hospital while still also supporting donations to the IWK sick kids hospital.

The Cumberland Health Care Foundation is a registered Canadian not-for-profit charity dedicated to enhancing the provision of a high standard of health care within Cumberland County by raising funds and supporting new and improved services, programs, equipment and facilities. For additional information, please visit our website at www.chcfoundation.com.