BAY ROBERTS, N.L. — Nothing surprises Don Coombs anymore when it comes to seeing how great people in the Trinity-Conception-Placentia region are when it comes to helping out local health-care facilities.
The 30th annual edition of the Trinty-Conception-Placentia Health Foundation Telethon, held Oct. 6 at Amalgamated Academy in Bay Roberts, raised $612,896. Coombs, chief development officer for the foundation, confirmed it was a new record-setting total, adding donations were still coming in a couple of days after the event. It raised over $552,000 last year.
"I'm so happy about it — people came through big time again," Coombs said.
"It doesn't surprise me because people are good, but I think for the most part in our area, people recognize the foundation and the good that it's doing."
The Trinity Conception Placentia Health Foundation was created to assist Eastern Health with fundraising to purchase equipment that may not be available through provincial funding. It has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment to nursing homes, hospitals and seniors living facilities over the years.
Coombs says the telethon has benefitted tremendously from volunteers who come back every year to help with the event, which is broadcast live on the local Eastink community cable channel. A lot of younger people have also been involved in recent years, he added.
Funds raised this year may go towards the purchase of instrumentation and medical device reprocessing equipment for Carbonear General Hospital, or to purchase a cuddle bed for long-term care patients at the Pte. Josiah Squibb Memorial Pavilion in Carbonear. The full cost of those items combined is just under $1.1 million.
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