Smile Cookie Campaign donates over $72,000 to Emergency Equipment at Norfolk General Hospital; sets new local record

(Photo from left to right: Penny Bellhouse, Executive Director Norfolk General Hospital Foundation, Kaer Saffouri, Mary Blakemore, Cheryl Nelson, Shaun Salverda, Brendhan Nelson and Grant Nelson.)

Tim Hortons restaurant owners and thousands of generous community members combined broke yet another Smile Cookie record by raising $72,023.07 for the Norfolk General Hospital Foundation. The donation will kick off the Emergency Department campaign funding the patient bedside monitoring system.

Like many years before, Norfolk’s local Tim Hortons restaurant owners Grant and Cheryl Nelson, Steve and Shaun Salverda, and new owners Mary Blakemore and Kaer Saffouri came together to support their local hospital.

The patient monitoring system in the emergency department needs updating. It is at the end of its service contract and parts are no longer available through the manufacturer so maintaining the system is costly. The cost of the system is $360,000.

“Monitor failures will impact patient care, with no ability to monitor cardiac rhythm or other vital signs at the bedside or centrally.” – Adam Isaacs, Director of ED and ICU at Norfolk General Hospital explaining why this update is essential to patient care.

Locally our Tim Hortons stores have donated nearly $400,000 to the Norfolk General Hospital Foundation since the program’s inception.

“We are so grateful to our Norfolk Tim Hortons teams, you step up every campaign and show the community how much you care.” – Penny Bellhouse