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Brookswood students practice philanthropy on Langley hospital

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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 to buy 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.

Grade 10 students Marcus Loden, Sidney Lancaster, Cherise Roberge, Melissa Ulle and Julia Marshall are 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. Student Melissa Ulle said after chatting with Donor, Event and Community Relations co-ordinator Melissa Pettit, they wanted to 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,” Ulle said.” We wanted to win, because it’s really important. It made us sad to know the seniors can’t have proper dinners.”

Residential Services director Laura Choroszewski said 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 meaningful Christmas dinner,” Choroszewski said. “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 teens, along with Brookswood Secondary School principal Marcello Moino presented the cheque to LMHF April 17.

Established in 1985, the Langley Memorial Hospital Foundation has raised more than $30 million to support Langley Memorial Hospital and the healthcare needs of the Langley communities.