Posted on Sep 30, 2017

Trenton Rotary takes a lead..

The Trenton Rotary Club takes the lead over Scotiabank during the Bankers Bed Races fundraiser for the Trenton Memorial Hospital Foundation on Saturday Sept. 30. - Erin Stewart/Metroland

Teams sprinted their beds down Ryan Crescent during the final event in the month-long fundraising campaign by local banks, which raised a grand total of $10,008 for the Trenton Memorial Hospital Foundation (TMHF).

Wendy Warner, executive director of the TMHF, said it was amazing to see the community come together to support health care at TMH.

“All of the banks, they’ve all gotten on board so the entire community, (with) gifts big or small, have been able to get involved and participate and help us buy beds for our hospital, which people think the government should fund, but the community funds it,” she said.

The bed races, part of Leon’s buy a bed campaign, is an effort to raise the $100,000 needed to purchase eight hospital beds and three stretchers for TMH.

 

 

Bankers bed races

“The campaign has had an absolutely huge impact,” said Warner.

“It’s been just absolutely far reaching for us, we’ve had people hearing about it on the radio, seeing it in their banks, so it’s been good for us to reach that population that we don’t always get to.”

Nick Toritto, Scotiabank vice president of the Ontario central east district, rode on top of Scotia Bank’s bed dressed in a fur coat and gold chains, thanks to his Scotia Bank team in Trenton.

“I came out today because we’re very happy to be a part of the Trenton community and the whole Trenton Memorial Hospital Foundation, this is a great cause to raise awareness and funds for beds that are required,” he said.

The Scotiabank team raised over $500 as an incentive to get Toritto to participate in the event.

“They did a great job, I’m so proud of Michelle and Susan who are our managers in Trenton and the whole team,” he said.

Kathi McBride, branch manager at TD Bank in Trenton, said the TD team’s fundraising campaign did better than expected.

“Our goal was $1,000 and we raised just over $1,600, so it was a lot more than we anticipated but we couldn’t have done it without our customers, they took involvement in everything we did and we had a lot of fun with it,” she said.

The fundraising campaign was a fantastic idea, said McBride, since the hospital is connected to everybody in the community.

“It’s the best thing we’ve done in a long time and we know it’s supported our community, we all get use out of the Trenton Memorial Hospital.”

Going into the event on Saturday, the TMHF had three out of the eight beds needed for the hospital.

by Erin Stewart

Erin Stewart is the reporter for The Quinte West News. She can be reached at erin.stewart@metroland.com . Follow her on Twitter and Facebook.