6 Tri-City Restaurants will feature an “Eat Your Heart Out” Menu with $10 from each dinner going to the Eagle Ridge Hospital Foundation. Feature menus available by reservation only. Reserve at your restaurant of choice.

Click here for more information and to view the feature menus.

On the burrito weight scale Mayor Moore’s burrito was beefier but the judges deemed Alison’s burrito had the most flavour!

Come on out January 20th – 22nd where a dollar from every burrito sold at Taco Del Mar will be donated to Eagle Ridge Hospital Foundation!

Saturday, Jan 21st  – See our Fire Fighters from all three districts compete for bragging rights on the 5 Pound Burrito Challenge! 

Thank you Taco Del Mar for donating back 1 dollar for every burrito sold to Eagle Ridge Hospital January 20 – 22nd!

Photos from the Event

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Her appointment was announced by Foundation Board Chair Alison Johansen who said Charlene will be introduced to Foundation supporters during the 2011 Evening of Caring, the Foundation’s major fund-raising gala scheduled Saturday, Oct. 1 at the Boulevard Casino’s Red Robinson Show Theatre. She will take up her new duties Oct. 3.

For further information about the foundation and the gala, including tickets, see www.erhf.ca

Giovannetti-King, who holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from St. Francis Xavier University, succeeds David Clark, who retired this summer after six years in the post. She joins the Foundation after service as Vice President, Funds Development of the YMCA of Greater Vancouver where she has helped raise $2.5 million annually over the last four years.

Charlene’s experience with fundraising and non-profit organizations began in Nova Scotia where she was Chief Executive Officer of YMCA Cape Breton from 1999 for eight years, during which she was charged with opening a new facility for the organization, implementing a strategic plan, and transforming a lottery system that generated $100,000 annually.

“In addition to a solid history of reporting responsibilities to a board of directors, managing teams and preparing and working with budgets Charlene brings professional experience from her involvement in two large capital campaigns,” Johansen said. “The first was a $10 million campaign with the YMCA of Cape Breton in Sydney, Nova Scotia and the second was an integrated capital campaign in Vancouver.”

In earlier years, Charlene regularly traveled from Nova Scotia to visit with family members living in the Tri-Cities area.  She has a strong affinity for the area and said: “I’m very excited to live and work in the same community, giving back while challenging and expanding my professional development with the Eagle Ridge Hospital Foundation.”

Giovannetti-King, 49, her husband Darrell and daughters Alysha and Tara have lived in Coquitlam since moving to the West Coast in 2007.

As Executive Director, she leads a staff that includes Karen Horton, Director of Development; Carly Foster, Director of Events; Gabriela Slade, Foundation Coordinator; and Maggie Morrison, Development Assistant.

When I heard about the suggestion that part or all of Royal Columbian Hospital should be moved to Riverview in Coquitlam, my immediate reaction was to hope this debate would not distract the attention of political and health authorities from the importance of upgrading our own Tri-Cities hospital – Eagle Ridge. It happens to be in Port Moody, but it was built to serve the entire Tri-Cities community, including Coquitlam, whose council now is expressing a wish to have a hospital within its city boundaries.

Some years ago, I had a personal experience that has left me with a passion to support upgrading Eagle Ridge Hospital (ERH). My daughter was two when she did a ballet twirl off the sofa and came up injured. It was wintertime. Snow was falling in late afternoon when I drove her to ERH, not far from our Port Coquitlam home.

The medical team at ERH’s emergency department found that she’d broken an arm – but the available medical services were not able to deal with the needed treatment. So I drove her to Royal Columbian Hospital (RCH) in New Westminster to have the arm set.

Since that experience, many improvements have been made at ERH – many with the urging and support of the Eagle Ridge Hospital Foundation.

However, if I took my daughter to ERH emergency tomorrow after 5 p.m., or on a weekend, she’d still have to be moved to RCH to have a broken arm set under general anesthetic or for an emergency appendix surgery.

Fraser Health Authority (FHA) and many others – including our foundation board members – recognize that this is not good enough for the growing Tri-Cities community. Hopefully, steps now being taken will lead to Eagle Ridge becoming a full-blown community general hospital, no matter what happens in the growth and improvement of RCH.

Working with our community and Fraser Health to achieve that goal at what I believe is a critical point in time is my motivation in accepting the job as chair of the ERH Foundation, so ably led for the last several years by my predecessor, Peter Irving, and executive director David Clark, who retired in August after six years. In that time, the foundation raised more than $8 million for ERH equipment purchases.

Equally important – not just to Tri-Cities residents but to everyone in Fraser Health’s coverage area – Irving and Clark, with board support, were quiet and effective advocates for improvements to the medical services delivered through Eagle Ridge Hospital. They encouraged Fraser Health, which oversees ERH, to take a fresh look at upgrading ERH to meet requirements of a population that’s more than doubled since the hospital was opened. Their persistence is credited, at least in part, for Fraser Health’s decision to conduct a clinical review in 2009.

Many of the resulting recommendations have been implemented, but ERH still remains largely an auxiliary to RCH, with elective and emergency surgeries available essentially only from 9 to 5 weekdays but not 24/7 as they should be.

I want to encourage everyone in our Tri-Cities community – Port Moody, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Anmore and Belcarra – to tell their politicians and health authorities to keep their focus on improving ERH, even while they think about the future of RCH as our major trauma hospital.

Tri-Cities residents need and deserve a community general hospital that can address emergencies 24/7. That can’t be achieved overnight. But the ERH Foundation is hopeful we will see real progress during the months ahead as a result of the development of a master site plan for ERH, which the foundation is helping to fund. That work is designed to determine what services and hospital expansion will be required to better serve the Tri-Cities in the next 25 years.

In addition to continuing its support for the excellent health-care staff at ERH, our foundation is gearing up to be as helpful as it can to Fraser Health – in fundraising and in advocacy. All of us on the board know that meeting the needs this plan will identify requires strong community support, including a multi-million-dollar fundraising campaign toward capital costs of an expanded emergency department.

As board chair, encouraging that support is my mission and my passion because I want the Tri-Cities community to have the medical services it needs and deserves.

Alison Johansen is chair of the board of the Eagle Ridge Hospital Foundation.

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Other wonderful supporters are St. James’s Well, TAC Mobility, Vivio Flowers and Fast Signs.

The foundation enjoyed hosting the event and playing minute to win it with staff.

We had over 350 hospital staff come join us! Thank you to all who supported this great ‘give back’ event!

Karen Horton, ERHF, Cindy Morrison, UPS, our Port Moody UPS Driver, Mariel Williams, ERH Volunteer Resources Manager

Our Manager of Volunteer Resources, Mariel Williams will put it to great use! She is creating a training video for Volunteers. It is the gift that will keep on giving!  Did you know that Eagle Ridge Hospital requires 400 volunteers to assist each year?

Consequently, recruitment is constant and includes a wider demographic, from high school to senior recreational centres. (Ages 16 – 85) Playing a video that shows our current site and a range of volunteer skills will entice volunteers to Eagle Ridge Hospital and better them train them for various helper roles with patients.

Left - Nick Stebbing, Rotary Club of Port Moody President 2010-2011, Karen Horton, ERHF, Carole Edwards Manager of Health Services for Residential Care at ERH, far right side of the photo) Gayle Carter, Rotary Club of Port Moody, Past President and District Grants Chairperson

Thank you Rotary of Port Moody for your recent help for a new ‘single button’ ice dispenser machine for our Manor residents! They love being more independent!

The Rotary of Port Moody has generously supported our Manor Residents and the patients of Eagle Ridge Hospital Foundation since 2001. In just the last 18 months, the Rotary of Port Moody has donated over $22,000 to improve patient care at the Manor and Eagle Ridge Hospital.

Dr. Irwin Stewart of the Saint Mary's Foundation and Surgical Site Manager Stacey Barnabe

Dr. Stewart came for a visit to our hospital to see their most recent generous donation of an orthopedic drill set for our surgeons to use. Dr. Stewart toured the OR and Surgical Processing, learning just how valuable a second set of tools can be – improving patient care and efficiency.

The Saint Mary’s Foundation has been a wonderful supporter of Eagle Ridge Hospital since 2004. They have helped improve patient care with new surgical equipment from orthopedics to general surgery. They also have been a fantastic support for our Nurses with education and specialized conference help.

Scotiabank, Coquitlam Centre Team

Barb Kalansky, David Clark, Robyn Neff

Wonderful volunteers and matching donations in support of Eagle Ridge Hospital! At our most recent spring golf tournament, Scotiabank sold raffle tickets and then matched the funds to the tune of $5,000! Scotiabank is a great supporter of the Foundation through other events such as the Evening of Caring gala and Tailgate.

Thank you Bobbie! Bobbie Miller, and David Clark, ERHF

Every little TV ordered can make a BIG difference! Just talk to Bobbie!

Bobbie Miller has been bringing televisions to patients here at Eagle RIdge Hospital for 14 years! She enjoys her job and truly thinks of ERH as a community that cares about each other! She was very busy last year during the Olympics… and always responds to requests quickly.

Bobbie gives back too. When patients leave a little tip for her, she collects all tips in a separate jar, then adds to it and buys patients without funds a TV for their patient rooms over the Christmas holidays.

Bobbie, thank you for being such a caring part of our ERH team – and thank you Hospitality Network for giving back so generously to support the ERH Foundation!