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Weber Manufacturing gives $25,000 to Kickstart Your Heart

On February 4, 2022, Weber Manufacturing Technologies Inc. announced a $25,000 gift to the Georgian Bay General Hospital (GBGH) Foundation’s Kickstart Your Heart campaign.  The gift will fund the purchase of a crash cart, equipped with a life-saving defibrillator for GBGH.  Weber Manufacturing has committed a total of $50,000 to the GBGH Foundation in the past year, including a $25,000 gift to the Power of Giving Virtual Gala in August 2021.

“From a business perspective, we support the hospital because of the community and the impact it has on our employees and their families,” shares Chris Edwards, president of Weber Manufacturing. “They live, work and play in this community and the senior team [at Weber] wants to support the community, and what better place than our local hospital.”

Supporting local health care is also important to Chris personally as he was born and raised in Midland, and GBGH has been there for him and his family when needed.

“Since 2007, we’ve been involved with the GBGH Foundation through the smile cookie program, ‘working for my hospital’ and the annual gala,” says Chris. “But in 2013, when I attended the Breakfast of Champions, and learned that the government does not fund the purchase of equipment for the hospital, I knew we had to take the initiative to do more.”

In total, Weber Manufacturing has given more than $75,000 to the GBGH Foundation, helping to support the most critical equipment and technology requirements over the years.

“Through this gift, Chris has demonstrated how much he cares about our community, and the health and safety of his entire team at Weber,” says Nicole Kraftscik, executive director, GBGH Foundation. “This investment in life-saving equipment will have a lasting impact on the care provided at GBGH, and we are deeply grateful for his remarkable generosity.”

The Kickstart Your Heart campaign runs from January 31 to February 14, 2022, and all gifts are being matched by Conrad & Donna Huber (up to a total of $100,000). Those wishing to learn more can click here or call the GBGH Foundation at 705-526-GIVE (4483).

To watch a message from Chris Edwards, visit: https://youtu.be/SkZgKnta280

An Update from GBGH President & CEO

Given we are just over a month into 2022, I must start by wishing you all a wonderful New Year with best wishes of health, happiness and hope for the months ahead. We are still optimistic that at some point through 2022, we will return to some normalcy and transition out of this enduring and exhausting pandemic.

Although our hopes for a different 2021 didn’t turn out exactly as planned, we can still reflect with pride on the way in which the GBGH team has risen to countless challenges. We still have much to look forward to in 2022 as I hope to be able to share promising news this year.

For now though, our priority list continues to be dominated by the pandemic. Despite all our collective best efforts, we are dealing with the most challenging period of the pandemic to date. We have made the difficult decision to once again limit visitation as a safety measure and have mandatory vaccination policies for team members and visitors.

The prolonged duration of stressful times, combined with the overwhelming COVID burden, is certainly taking its toll on the GBGH team. We are seeing soaring rates of COVID illness in our community and our team has not gone unscathed. Like hospitals across the province, GBGH is experiencing unprecedented staffing pressures due to illness. As mandated by the province, GBGH is once again reducing non-urgent and elective services. Ramping down these surgeries and procedures is never ideal but is intended to serve two purposes – increase bed capacity and preserve staffing to assist where needed throughout hospitals.

GBGH will continue to make these important decisions with the best interests of our patients, team members and community in mind. Even with the current challenges, we continue our steadfast commitment to be here for you when you need us. We will get through this together and we will always find a way to continue providing exceptional care to our community – even in times of great adversity.

Gail Hunt
President & CEO
Georgian Bay General Hospital