Many different people are brought together by the annual Janeway Telethon because they all share the same goal — to make sure their children have the best health care by raising money for the Janeway.
Ruth Squires, the Janeway Foundation’s manager for telethon and gift planning, is at NTV this week preparing for the 34th annual Janeway Children’s Miracle Network Telethon. It will be broadcast Saturday from 6:30-9:30 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. to raise money to help the Janeway obtain new technology to improve health care.
“When we have the Telethon every year it gives the foundation an opportunity to thank our donors” Squires says. “We have donors all year around raising money for the children of Newfoundland and Labrador. Right after the telethon some of our donors will call up and say, ‘OK, I want to start another community project.’”
Squires said Newfoundlanders and Labradorians’ telethon donations for equipment, programs and research reflect their commitment to health care, because children should live to their best potential and grow up to be the people they were meant to be.
“Our champion child, Hilary (Warren), and her dad did a 52-kilometre walk because the Janeway is 52 years old, and that is how they raised money and they are going to be presenting during telethon weekend, as well,” Squires said. “Through the weekend we are looking at possibly 230, 240 presenters presenting their donations on air, and that is through five or six different locations.”
Squires says that each year the division managers of the Janeway hospital prepare a list of much-needed equipment, which is not funded by the government and can cost millions of dollars.
The equipment needs vary, she said.
“Right after the miracle kid’s stories, you will see several pieces that we call ‘calls-to-actions,’” Squires said. “So, one of them is a portable ultra-sound machine. The other one is a portable X-ray machine, because these pieces of equipment can be brought to the kids’ rooms and to their beds. Another one is going to be treadmills for development and rehabilitation.”
Squires says the foundation wants kids to have the best health care possible so they do not have to leave the province simply because the medical equipment they need isn’t available in Newfoundland and Labrador.
“This year’s Janeway Hospital prioritized capital equipment requests are in excess of $3.4 million,” Janeway Foundation president and CEO Lynn Sparkes stated in an email. “Telethon proceeds will be directed to these priorities that were identified in every department in the Janeway.”
In an email, Janeway Foundation spokeswoman Phyllis Kinsman said some “big ticket” items this year include an emergency department information system (EDIS) and an expanded medical daycare unit.
Kinsman said the EDIS “tracks patient flow through the emergency department, diagnostic imaging department, lab, etc. in real time and greatly improves flow and throughput. This system is the gold standard for emergency departments across the country these days.”
The medical daycare unit needs more staff because more children with cancer or long-term disease treatments are staying at the hospital for longer periods of time, so a larger staff trained to deal with children is needed, Kinsman said.
Other things that donations are used for are research projects, grants, bursaries, staff and educational programs.
“Each year we fund $150,000 for pediatric research. Actually, this year one of the featured pieces (on the telethon broadcast) is about one of the research projects,” Squires said. “The other thing we fund is staff education. So, each year we provide grants and bursaries to the staff of the hospital to the tune of $100,000 and then, of course, we fund specialized programs for the hospital as well to make sure kids get the best health care possible.”
Last year the telethon raised more than $3.4 million. For this year’s event, organizers don’t talk about specific goals — it’s all about raising money to allow the hospital to better meet the needs of the province’s children.
“Medical equipment is very expensive and we need to keep up with the advancements,” Squires said. “That’s the most important thing at the end of the day, that our children get the best care that they deserve.”
For more information about the telethon, visit https://janewayfoundation.nf.ca.
