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Jul 13, 2023

Sandra Schmirler Foundation grants thousands for new piece of equipment at Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre’s NICU

“The family can be around the baby as well,” continues May. “And so having this piece of equipment, really is essential to our day-to-day operations. Currently, we’ve been sharing with Labour and

“The family can be around the baby as well,” continues May. “And so having this piece of equipment, really is essential to our day-to-day operations. Currently, we’ve been sharing with Labour and Deliveries, so having something exclusively for NICU is wonderful. We’re so grateful for the donations that come into NICU and this one’s very generous, and so a huge shout out to the Foundation.”

Red Deer native Jocelyn Peterman, an Olympic curler and Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion, was at the Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre on Tuesday for the cheque presentation, representing the Sandra Schmirler Foundation.

“At the Scotties, they (Sandra Schmirler Foundation) do a lot of fundraising at that event and even at our Grand Slam events throughout the year, they do fundraising at all those events and try to support the hospitals in the local communities of our curling events that we’re in,” she explains. “So the curlers are all very invested in the Foundation and do a lot to try to help them raise money.”

Peterman says the cause became very personal to her and her husband when their newborn son Luke, unexpectedly needed to go to the NICU in Calgary where he was born. Peterman then reached out to the Foundation to help out even more.

“It means a lot to us to be able to bring him here and give the presentation for the hospital here cause I grew up in Red Deer and had lots of friends and family who have had babies here at the hospital and had babies come into the NICU here, and so it’s close to home and special for us to be able to contribute in a small way or represent the Foundation in their big contribution,” says Peterman.

Manon Therriault, CEO, Red Deer Regional Health Foundation, says they’ve worked with the Sandra Schmirler Foundation for many years, noting the organization contributes to them consistently, with this grant, however, being extraordinary.

“We’re really grateful that they stepped up and contributed in a much larger way to outright purchase a piece of equipment,” says Therriault. “We’ve been supporting this hospital for a very long time and its no secret that there are great needs in this building and seeing the generosity of our community members not only from central Alberta, but Alberta wide is really great to see everyone thinking of us and our community members to ensure that our health care needs are met.”