13th Annual Skip to Equip Classic brings MRI services a step closer to reality in Sioux Lookout

Tim Brody - Editor

For 13 years now, the Skip to Equip Classic women’s curling fundraising bonspiel has been raising funds to support healthcare in the community.
A highlight of the event each year has been the reveal of the cheque to be presented to the Sioux Lookout Meno Win Health Centre (SLMHC) Foundation. 
Last year, and this year, funds raised have been donated the Foundation’s equipment fund with priority given to the MRI unit the community is fundraising for.
This year’s event, the 13th Annual Sioux Lookout Home Hardware Skip to Equip Classic, raised $160,000, putting the amount raised by the event in 13 years over the one million dollars mark.
Committee Chair Kelli-Dawn Baker said work on the event begins in February.
“We started talking this year and it was like, ‘wow, we could potentially reach this million dollars’, but I never dreamed in my wildest dreams it could be as soon as we did it.”
“That goes a long way when people know that their money that they’re giving, their hard earned money, stays 100 percent local. The fact that we had that over $90,000 that we needed in our mind, again, the sponsorship team, the pledge getters, they went out and that million dollars was in everybody’s mind, and everybody worked that little bit harder to see that we could potentially do that.”
Committee member Natalie Popovic said she can see the momentum building in the community to make an MRI unit at the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre a reality.
“Having these big goals, we know we want an MRI, we know we’re working towards a million dollars, it’s an easier sell to the community,” she said.
“Everybody is sick of travelling so far for healthcare. You talk about equality across the province, it’s not when we have to travel so far. MRI is standard equipment now in hospitals, it’s not specialized equipment and sometimes that’s what southern Ontario forgets,” commented Committee member Jackie Duhamel.  
“We’ve got energy, we’ve got the desire, we’ve got the ambition,” she said of the event committee and their desire to raise money for an MRI unit for the hospital and this year, the desire the committee had to surpass the approximately $90,000 needed to reach $1 million over the 13 years the event has been taking place.
Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre Foundation Donor Relations/Operations Coordinator Melissa Slade said just over 2.5 million has been raised so far for the new MRI unit.
“Everybody’s recognizing, especially here in the northwest, they really do need to work together to make these things happen because miles and kilometers separate all these communities, but when you look at the importance of putting something of this magnitude in somewhere like Sioux Lookout, which really is fairly central in the region, it just makes it that much more accessible for people,” she shared.
SLMHC Chief of Surgery Dr. Eric Touzin, during the closing ceremony for this year’s Skip to Equip Classic, gave as an example, a 52-year-old female, married, with two daughters.
“She has an abnormal screening mammogram, and the biopsy reveals breast cancer,” he said. “She proceeds to surgery, chemo, radiation, whatever’s necessary, the cancer is treated now, full remission, great!”
He explained that woman is now considered high risk, and she is sent for genetic testing, which shows that her two daughters are now also both considered high risk.
“Patient X will travel every year for MRI screening until age 70, that’s going to be 13,600 kilometers. That is the distance from Vancouver to Halifax and back.  The family will travel 76,000 kilometers in total when you factor in the screen of the two daughters. That is twice the distance of driving around the earth for screening only. In my opinion, this is why we need an MRI in Sioux Lookout,” he said.
Cynthia Dwyer, SLMHC Vice President Health Services & Chief Nursing Executive, shared her breast cancer story with those present.
“What he is talking about, that’s what I went through. You had to go down there and see the oncologist, you had to have your first dose of chemotherapy, but I had to go down multiple times for MRIs, and I will continue to have to go down for MRIs for the foreseeable future. Reason being, my cancer was so aggressive, I have a gene that makes the cancer cells multiple really quickly, that’s why it spread so quickly.,” Dwyer said.
“Dr. Touzin is right, everybody either has someone in their immediate or outside circles that they know that has had their challenges with accessing this kind of healthcare and it’s not acceptable not to have it here. It’s something we’re all working towards. I think on the other side of it, I think that people are realizing that yes, it is becoming a standard of practice. When we look at physician recruitment, I know that’s one thing that Dean (Osmond – SLMHC President and CEO) over and over again when approaching the town and any outreach that we put out there, just doctors that are training, when they graduate and they are choosing where to go, they have their choice of places that have this standard equipment on board for them to do the best job possible, somewhere where they’re going to have challenges of not being able to provide that at their fingertips, that is a swaying decision. So not only to have the equipment here but have the best technicians to work it and the best healthcare providers, it really is essential to have it here,” Slade commented. 
“The amount itself is a huge amount that is needed for this particular campaign and project to make it a reality (approximately $7 million),” Slade said. “It seemed at the very beginning almost so daunting, but I think as those community partners jump in and the donations that we’ve been working on the last year, that momentum going, just being the focus of people and events like this, it really has started to gain traction. Each and every day, with every donation, it definitely seems more reachable,” she said.
Committee member and participant Marlene MacDonald was the top individual fundraiser this year, raising approximately $11,000.
MacDonald has been a member of the event’s organizing committee from the start.
Asked her reaction to raising over$1million in 13 years, she said, “My reaction to that is just such a supportive community that we have. It’s never-ending. They seem to just open their wallets, open their hearts, and support us.”
Committee member and participant Monique Mousseau was a member of the event’s winning team.
“It’s an amazing weekend. It always is. All the women come out for the cause, you curling is the bonus added part to it, the camaraderie and the fact that we’re banding together for something that’s going to benefit the whole community and northwestern Ontario, it’s just having that purpose makes it so meaningful when we accomplish something like we’ve accomplished.”
Sioux Lookout Home Hardware Partner and General Manager Eric Bortlis said of being the title sponsor of the event for the second year in a row, “A couple of members of the committee obviously work at Home Hardware and it’s been abuzz since last year. They have been excited and for us to be a part of that is exciting for us and we’re thankful for the opportunity.” 
For event participant Anita Webster, this was her first bonspiel, and first time curling.
“I know it’s a good cause, it’s healthy, and my mom used to be a curler so I knew that she would be proud of me for trying it myself. I think it was challenging, and I would definitely do it again. 
It was amazing to me just how open everybody was to my questions and to teaching me,” she shared.
Tracey Ellek, a regular participant in the event, shared, “My friends and family come from out of town… I love curling. It’s a good bonspiel, it’s a good fundraiser, just a good fun weekend.”
Dawn Sauve has come from Dryden each year to curl in the event.
“I think it’s all the different friendships, all the people that we’ve met over the years. I also think it’s a great fundraiser for what they’re doing. It doesn’t just support Sioux Lookout; it supports Dryden and surrounding area.”