We’re helping at home, in Haiti and in Whistler

Our people are making the world a better place

In this issue of Niagara Health Now, we are thrilled to shine the spotlight on two members of the Niagara Health family who are lending their time and talents as community volunteers. Although we hear it often that charity begins at home, quite frankly home is where the heart is.

For Donna Thiessen, a Laboratory Technologist at the St. Catharines General Site, what was to be a volunteer junket to help teach new skills to women in Haiti turned rapidly into a medical rescue mission. Just two hours after landing in Port-au-Prince on Jan. 12, the earthquake hit. Donna returned safely to Niagara and to her work, and in this issue she heroically shares with our readers her first-person account of the Haiti earthquake.

For Linda Howe, while it is a completely different experience, it is also life altering. This Registered Nurse experienced the 2010 Olympic Games from the frontlines as a volunteer at the Olympic Village in Whistler, B.C. In many ways, she represented the face of Canada for the athletes; before leaving for Whistler, she remarked how a smile would be an important part of her uniform while interacting regularly with the world’s best athletes.

People throughout Niagara Health are doing great things to make the world a better place, not only in their local communities but throughout our global village. From pitching in as coaches and referees at minor hockey, to manning the medical centre at rowing regattas, to ensuring there is enough to eat and plenty of warm clothes to go round at the Out of the Cold programs, every week you can find someone from our hospital helping out.

Keep up the great work and bit by bit we can make this world a better place for all.  «

Christine Clark, Chief Communications Officer