Jan 28, 2010


$165,000 in medical aid for Haiti

Something Cool & Local Scouts join forces  for Haiti

Loose change adds up for Haiti at Loughborough PS

Back row l-r: Linda Bates, John McDougall, Frank York Ffront row l-r: Leslie and Blaine Bates, Heather Ryan, Johnathan and Andrew Asselstine and Kevin Ryan. Photo courtesy of Don Bates

It didn’t take long for Verona resident Linda Bates to rally her forces in support of the Haitian relief effort. As of Jan. 22, after sending a number of emails to friends and family, Bates, who works as the international project coordinator for the International Scout Guide Fellowship (ISGF), coordinated the collection of over $100,000 worth of medical supplies that will travel to Haiti to aid those injured in the devastating earthquake that struck the island on Jan. 12.

The supplies were donated from Abernethey Paint and Wallpaper in Bowmanville, Durham College’s Department of Health Sciences in Oshawa and the emergency medical service units of Durham Region, Haliburton and Peterborough counties, along with Medavie Emergency Medical Services in Muskoka. Local Verona residents also made donations in excess of $5,000.

The bulk of the shipment arrived in Verona on the evening of Jan. 22 where Linda and a group of volunteers, some of whom were members of Linda’s ISGF Project Haiti team from 2009, were ready and waiting to help unload it.

Linda’s stepson Blaine Bates works as an advanced care paramedic with the Durham Region Emergency Medical Services. With his daughter Leslie, Blaine drove an ambulance pulling a 25 foot trailer filled with medical supplies to Verona. According to Blaine “there are basically enough supplies to set up an entire emergency department in Haiti.”

The supplies included burn and dressing kits, fracture boards and stretchers, IV needles, sets and fluids, catheters, oxygen equipment, medical gowns, gloves, masks, sterile water and saline solution.

A first shipment of these supplies was sorted and then packed and it traveled to Haiti on Jan. 26 with local residents Tammy Babcock, Kari Wolsley and Jaime Woods, all three former girl guides and members of the local “Help Tammy Help Haiti” team. The three women will be providing first aid relief in Cite Soleil which is located just outside of Port-au-Prince.

Linda explained how quickly things fell into place once she decided that collecting donations would be the best way for her to help Haiti at this point in time. “I knew I had to do something to help out so last Sunday I sent out four emails and by Monday night I already had $5,000 in local donations. Then when Blaine contacted me to ask me if, as an ISGF coordinator, I could assist him and his daughter Leslie in collecting donations for Haiti I immediately agreed and that is what really got the ball rolling." she said.

As Blaine recalled, “After speaking with Linda I sent out an email to our director of emergency services in Durham, Richard Armstrong, asking for a small donation for the ISGF. He agreed and also asked permission to forward my request for donations to other emergency services units. And that’s when everything really snowballed and the donations just started pouring in. The response was unbelievably quick."

Linda said that the donations are still continuing to come in and informed me that since Blaine's arrival in Verona on Friday night with $100,000 in supplies, another $65,000 in medical supplies has been donated, including a number of wheelchairs, for a total of $165,000 thus far.

Linda and her five-member Haiti team, which includes Heather and Kevin Ryan, will be returning to Grison Garde roughly a year from now to continue with their most current project there, a program to build classroom chairs for students at four schools in Grison Garde.

For Linda, organizing and collecting the donations for Haiti is just a continuation of the work she has be doing in that country and is something that she feels compelled to do.

“If I could wiggle my nose and make all of the devastation in Haiti disappear I would, but I can’t. Wanting to help is something that consumes me night and day and because I have been there I know first hand how people like us can make a real difference in the lives of so many. Knowing that is what really helps to keep me going,” she said

Anyone interested in making a donation to the "Chairs for Children in Haiti" can contact Linda Bates at 613 374-1307.

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