Ontario Chapter Host Golf Outing For Charity
On May 30, the Ontario Chapter held its annual golf tournament, deciding that after 20+ years at the same location they needed to change it up. The Chapter not only changed the venue (to Copper Creek Golf Club of the Humber River Valley), but also the format, making it a charity event. Chapter Chair Michael Cole said, "I am extremely pleased to say that we will be making an approximate $12,000 donation to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto ("SickKids" for short)."
For the event, the Chapter's event organizers placed signage on each hole for sponsors, and the Premier Level sponsors also had individual signage that lined the driveway as attendees came into the course.
About SickKids - It began in the spring of 1875, when a group of Toronto women led by Elizabeth McMaster rented an 11-room house for $320 a year, set up six iron cots, and declared open a hospital "for the admission and treatment of all sick children." On April 3, Maggie, a scalding victim, became SickKids' very first patient. In that first year, 44 patients were admitted to the Hospital. Sixty-seven others were treated in outpatient clinics.
The demand for services was so great that the Hospital had to move to a larger building in 1876. But even the larger building and its 16 beds were too few. In 1891, under the leadership of John Ross Robertson, Publisher of the Evening Telegram and Chairman of the Hospital's Board of Trustees, SickKids moved to an impressive new four-story, 320-bed facility at the corner of Elizabeth and College Streets.
In January of 1993, SickKids opened its brand new patient-care wing, the Atrium, which was designed by Eberhard Zeidler of Zeidler Roberts Partnership. Believing that light is important to healing, Zeidler designed the building around a nine-story, glass-roofed atrium to let in as much natural light as possible. The $232-million (CAN) Hospital has been paid for by taxpayers and contributors to the Hospital's capital campaign, SickKids Foundation, and other donors and bequests.
Most patients now have their own room, with a washroom, storage, and a day bed so a parent can stay at night. With the addition of the new wing, SickKids now fills an entire city block. The Atrium houses exciting facilities to help provide enhanced care and improve the treatment and diagnosis of childhood disease. The Critical Care Unit, where children with life threatening illness and injury receive care, almost doubled in size to 36 beds. The Emergency Department has two trauma rooms and a six-bed observation room.
