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Hallman foundation donates $150,000 to hospital unit

Record staff and Record news services

KITCHENER

The expanding mental health facilities at Grand River Hospital are getting a $150,000 boost from the Lyle. S. Hallman Foundation. Jim Hallman, son of the late philanthropist Lyle Hallman, presented the hospital's foundation with the donation this week. Hallman said $100,000 will go toward the child and adolescent in-patient unit. The rest is for a new outdoor courtyard for the adult unit.

Hallman Foundation gives $100,000 for day surgery
Record staff

CAMBRIDGE

The Lyle Hallman Foundation has given $100,000 to purchase a new operating table and other equipment for the day surgery area of Cambridge Memorial Hospital. A cheque was presented at yesterday's annual meeting of the Cambridge Memorial Hospital's fundraising foundation. The new table will be used for more than 12,000 procedures annually, the meeting was told.

University of Waterloo White Coat Ceremony

Photo by Neil Trotter

The University of Waterloo has welcomed its first 92 students to Canada’s newest pharmacy program! The pharmacy students, who began studying on Jan. 7, come from across the country. Women make up about 60 per cent of enrolment and 40 per cent of all students already hold a degree. The students are already deeply immersed in courses including physiology, pharmaceutics, professional practice, communication skills, metabolism, and computing for pharmacists.

UW offers one of only two co-op pharmacy programs in North America. The students will embark on their first co-op terms in September 2008, following two terms of academic study. International co-op experiences are encouraged. More than 800 potential employers have already expressed interest in hiring pharmacy students.

On Jan. 9, the class was welcomed to the profession with a White Coat Ceremony. The ceremony is a tradition in many health profession programs, particularly pharmacy and medicine. The white lab coat is symbolic of the tremendous responsibility that pharmacists hold as health care providers. As the students embark on their professional journey, this ceremony marks their commitment to ethics and integrity. Speakers included representatives from UW, the Ontario Pharmacists' Association, the Ontario College of Pharmacists, and the Region of Waterloo Pharmacists' Association. The students jointly took a pledge of professionalism. Their white coats were presented by practicing pharmacists who had served as team leaders in the applicant interview process.

The application process for the next class is well underway. The application deadline is January 31, 2008, and detailed application information is available at http://www.pharmacy.uwaterloo.ca/prospective. UW will accept up to 120 students.

The Children's Museum's amazing chimp show

January 21, 2008
THE RECORD

The Children's Museum of Waterloo Region on King Street in Kitchener hasn't had an easy time in its infancy, but it seems to be on its way to becoming the strong institution everyone hoped it would be.
Under its new chief executive officer, David Marskell, the children's museum came up with the clever idea of presenting Jane Goodall's travelling exhibit on chimpanzees. It opens at the museum on Jan. 25.
Goodall is the primatologist whose research in Africa in the 1960s showed chimps made tools to hunt for food. Before then, we thought that only humans made and used tools.
This type of exhibit is exactly what the museum needs: Something different, something amazing, something that would make children say "wow," something that would make parents want to take their children to the museum. The exhibit will include a replica of Goodall's research station at the Gombe National Park in Tanzania.
Even now, before it opens, the exhibit is sure to be a success. The question that the museum is probably already raising is, What will it do next that could be as amazing? That's a tough question, but at least the museum has now seen the type of question it has to answer.

Youth rehab centre to open

Ray of Hope says six-bed program should be first step toward permanent 40-bed teen addiction facility

January 15, 2008
GREG MERCER
RECORD STAFF

KITCHENER
By next month, local teenage boys addicted to alcohol and drugs will be able to get free, long-term treatment in their own backyard.
Ray of Hope, a non-profit organization, has been promised more than $1.1 million to create a six-bed rehabilitation program in Kitchener to help addicts from 13 to 17 years old turn their lives around.
Those behind the project say it's the first of its kind for southern Ontario -- a live-in, four-month program that will give teenagers medical help for their addictions, schooling and job training, and counselling for their families, all for free.
The six-bed program, which will be housed in Ray of Hope's Anchor House on Schneider Avenue in Kitchener, should be open for patients by the end of February.
Addicted teenagers now need to travel to Ottawa or Thunder Bay for similar programs or turn to private rehab facilities.
There's a treatment centre in Elora, but it only takes teenagers ordered there by a judge, children in the custody of the province, or those whose families can afford the fees.
The money for the six-bed Kitchener project, which will only be open to males because of its small size, was recently approved by the Waterloo-Wellington Local Health Integration Network. The health network administers funding for the region's hospitals, long-term care homes, mental health facilities and other treatment programs.
The $1.1 million -- $300,000 this fiscal year, and roughly $811,000 next year -- gives the project 18 months of dependable funding.
But Ray of Hope's directors say it's only a first step toward the organization's ultimate goal -- a new 40-bed youth addiction treatment centre, for both sexes, which has yet to be built.
For that, there's a donated plot of land on Charles Street and almost $6 million sitting in a bank account from a fundraising campaign that started in 2005.
But construction plans have been stalled as Ray of Hope waits for a commitment from the province to fund the facility's expected $4.2 million operating costs.
The group is asking the bulk of that be covered by the Ministry of Health, while $1 million would come from the Ministry of Education and other branches of government.
Noel Churchman, the Ray of Hope interim chief executive, said he doesn't understand the delay. The approved six-bed project is a mirror image of the larger proposal, he said.
Treatment for addicted youth, meanwhile, is supposedly marked as a top priority by the Liberals, he said, and Kitchener MPP John Milloy has pushed to get the government to look at Ray of Hope's proposal.
"I don't think there are any hang-ups, except that it's going to cost them money every year, forever," Churchman said.
"It's awfully hard for the government these days to come up with new dollars."
Improving addiction treatment in the region is also a priority for the local health network, chief executive Sandra Hanmer said, and that's why the six-bed project was approved.
But her board and the province need more time to examine Ray of Hope's request for funding for the larger centre, she said.
No decision on that should be expected in the next few months, Hanmer said.
"It's under review at the moment," she said. "I can't say when we'll be in a position to announce anything about that."
Churchman, meanwhile, said it's incredible Waterloo Region has gone this long without a government-funded addictions treatment facility for youth.
"You think of the population that lives within an hour's drive of us, and it's incredible they haven't got anything down here," he said.
Teenagers could be chosen for the Kitchener program based on referrals from local hospitals, said Dan Wideman, Ray of Hope's director of operations. They'll also be screened by the group's own staff.
gmercer@therecord.com

ATHLETIC COMPLEX GETS HUGE BOOST

Kitchener's new Hanson Avenue Athletic Complex got a $200,000 boost to its public fundraising campaign yesterday.
The Lyle S. Hallman Foundation pledged $200,000 toward the Places to Play campaign, pushing the fundraising total to nearly $1.35 million.
The campaign goal is $2 million.
The Hallman donation will be applied directly toward sponsorship of the facility's walking track.
The complex -- to be located at Hanson and Ardelt Avenue adjacent to St. Mary's High School -- will feature a twin ice pad with seating for 800 spectators, 12 dressing rooms, concessions, a pro shop, a four-lane indoor walking track, boxing ring and will be a permanent home for the Kitchener Minor Hockey Association as well as the Waterloo Regional Boxing Academy.

Affordable housing gets $4.6M boost

August 11, 2007
MELINDA DALTON
RECORD STAFF

CAMBRIDGE
After more than three years of environmental delays and fundraising hurdles, Heartwood Place's Ainslie Street affordable housing project now has a $4.6-million backbone.
The federal and provincial governments jointly announced this week the 66-unit building slated for the 2.1-acre site of the defunct Cambridge Reporter newspaper will receive a share of the $173 million doled out for more than 80 housing projects.
"This announcement's huge for us and now we'll really be putting our efforts into fundraising," said Heartwood chair Mary Bales.
"We have a ways to go, but we really believe this is a major component."
Heartwood has raised about $1 million of their $2.8-million fundraising goal for the project. They plan to mortgage the remaining cost of the $10-million project.
But the project faces another hurdle: the soil at the site is contaminated.
Until a proposed cleanup plan is approved by the Ministry of the Environment, work will be stalled and fundraising slowed. "It's very hard to ask for money when we say, 'We think we're building,' " Bales said.
Heartwood's development was one of two projects in the region to receive the newly announced funding. Waterloo's Needlewood Glen Housing Co-operative will get $700,000 for 10 new one-bedroom units at their Erb Street site.
"This $4.6 million is probably one of the biggest chunks we've seen in Cambridge in a very long time," Cambridge MP Gary Goodyear said yesterday.
There are currently about 9,000 affordable housing units in the region, but the number of people on the waiting list averages around 3,500, said the region's housing director, Keith Lucas.
"This certainly is going to put a dent in that," he said of the 76 soon-to-be created units in Cambridge and Waterloo. "Every little bit helps."
Established in 2001, the non-profit Heartwood Place aimed to meet some of the demand for safe, affordable housing in the region.
Its first project, which cost $3.1 million, created 33 apartments in the former Duthler Textiles building on Gaukel Street in downtown Kitchener.
Plans for a $10-million project in the Galt area of Cambridge -- featuring one-, two- and three-bedroom units as well as a coffee shop and a community room in a seven-storey structure -- were unveiled in 2005.
The building will provide housing for 66 limited-income families as well as job training at the coffee shop and a meeting space.
"It mirrors our first project in many ways in terms of taking an old site that isn't doing anything for anyone and making places for people to live," said Bales.
Heartwood Place bought the building in 2004 from Grand River Valley Newspapers, which published The Record and The Reporter, for $575,000, a year after the Cambridge paper closed.
The Record, now published by the Metroland division of Torstar, donated $300,000 to the project.
Heartwood expects ministry approval of a cleanup plan in the next week or two, Bales said.
"We hope to start within the very near future," she said. "The plans are drawn and we're ready to roll."
mdalton@therecord.com