Five Brookswood Secondary School students will make a huge difference in the lives of 200 seniors living in residential care homes at Langley Memorial Hospital.
Their $5,000 donation will go towards the purchase of new cutlery and dishes, so those patients can spend more time — including holiday dinners — with their families.
Part of the money will also go towards buying special mats to place near seniors’ beds, so the risk of falling and hurting themselves when they get in and out of bed is significantly reduced.
The Grade 10 students involved — Marcus Loden, Sidney Lancaster, Cherise Roberge, Melissa Ulle and Julia Marshall — are also the winners of this year’s Brookswood Secondary ‘Youth in Philanthropy’ initiative.
The object of each group involved was to pick a charity and develop a presentation describing why theirs should win the prize money.
The students called Langley Memorial Hospital Foundation to ask if there was a group that could benefit from this drive.
Ulle says after chatting with donor, event and community relations co-ordinator Melissa Pettit, they wanted to do what they could to help.
“Once we talked with everyone, we heard so many amazing things and we really wanted to do this charity work. It made us sad to know they can’t have proper dinners.”
Residential Services Director Laura Choroszewski says it’s a big gift for them because now families of those who live at the facilities can spend more quality time with them.
“One of the things we started last year was to make a meaningful Christmas dinner. Our goal was to include families in that. But one of our barriers is that we don’t have enough dishes to be able to have residents invite their families to enjoy Christmas dinner with them. So this money will allow us to purchase those dishes, and this year we’re hoping to have a big Christmas dinner and invite all of the families to join them.”
The five high school students, along with Brookswood Secondary School Principal Marcello Moino, presented the cheque for $5,000 to LMHF on April 17.
