By Don McCormick
In this new COVID-19 era with its social distancing and all, the simple act of a donor handing a cheque to the person receiving the donation has had to give way to the donor putting the cheque into the mailbox and the person accepting the donation by retrieving the envelope from their mailbox.
Such was the case when Jess Adam, representing the TriMuskoka Triathlon Club, mailed a cheque for a $4,000 donation to the Huntsville Hospital Foundation on Wednesday, April 8, 2020 and Katherine Craine, executive director of the Huntsville Hospital Foundation, received the envelope in her mailbox several days later.
The TriMuskoka Triathlon Club is, as the name implies, a club for local triathletes. It provides coaching, group training sessions, workshops, local triathlon races, social outings and the like for its members. But it is also a local charitable organization with a commitment to promoting healthy and active lifestyles in our community.
“We are trying to keep our community healthy by promoting activities and exercise,” says Catherine Zacal, president of the TriMuskoka Club. “However, at this time of pandemic emergency, keeping the community healthy means donating to the hospital foundation to provide aid for much-needed supplies.”
The club has made donations to other local organizations in the past. It runs an annual indoor triathlon at the Canada Summit Centre and any profits from that event have been donated to organizations like Enliven, Fish Stewardship and so on.
But, given the circumstances, this donation seemed to call for something more substantial so the TriMuskoka Board decided to dig into its reserves and make a $4,000 donation. The donation is intended to express our appreciation to the hospital staff for their work during this period of the COVID-19 pandemic and to, hopefully, provide personal protective equipment to keep them safe.
Craine expressed her appreciation for the donation. “We are so honoured that TriMuskoka has chosen Huntsville Hospital with this generous donation. Our healthcare team will certainly appreciate their support especially during this unsettling time. I also want to commend them for coming up with a fun way to let us know we have been a chosen recipient…thanks Jess for mailing our cheque and although we would love to meet in person for a photo we will mark this special occasion with a ‘virtual’ cheque exchange.”
There is probably little fun to be had in the medical profession these days so TriMuskoka is pleased to make the donation and to provide a small, fun respite and an expression of appreciation to all those frontline medical workers.
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It is very nice to see that TriMuskoka is making this donation. Perhaps some people will remember this, the next time they are “inconvenienced”, when there is a triathlon being held and their road is closed/restricted while the triathlon is being run. Hopefully TriMuskoka will be able to host another Swim, Bike, Run event this summer.