Stefano’s Stories: Thanks for giving Better Futures

January 2025

While the start of a new year brings excitement at the thought of all the wonderful moments to come, it also offers us the opportunity to reflect on last year’s achievements, accomplished through the generosity of our donors and sponsors and the hard work of volunteers, community supporters and staff.

2024 was a meaningful and rewarding year. Thanks to an astonishing 60,000 donations, this was the year that the Better Futures campaign surpassed its five-year goal of $75 million, reaching an extraordinary $87 million. These funds are all in use. Your gifts have helped fund critical infrastructure, life-saving medical equipment and technology, innovative programming to bring comfort to families in hospital, and leading-edge pediatric research at Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba (CHRIM).

The Government of Manitoba saw your commitment, and in November, they responded by investing $25 million to improve pediatric care at HSC Children’s Hospital. This brings our Better Futures campaign impact to an astounding $112 million and is a testament to what can be achieved when the community and our leaders unite toward a common goal.

In March, we were delighted to welcome Janessa Dumas Colomb as our 2024 Champion. Janessa, from Mathias Colomb Cree Nation, is the first Champion Child from a remote northern First Nations community, highlighting the challenges children in Manitoba’s remote and isolated communities face to get specialized pediatric care. She received a kidney transplant in 2020 and makes a 12-hour journey to Winnipeg with her family every six to eight weeks for checkups.

Despite the distance and the frequent hospital visits, Champion Janessa also attended over 20 events to represent the 140,000 kids who need HSC Children’s every year, up to 60 per cent of whom are Indigenous. She’s raising funds to support the Nephrology Clinic and Hemodialysis Unit and you can help with a donation at goodbear.ca/Janessa. We are so proud of Janessa and deeply grateful to her and her family. 

These kids are among the thousands of volunteers who put in hours and hours of hard work to make our fundraising events a success last year. More than 300 volunteers contributed to the success of our Children’s Hospital Book Market in the spring and fall. In partnership with Keeping Kenzi Close, the Children’s Hospital Foundation Golf Tournament raised more than $270,000 – a new high! Thanks to over 1,000 volunteers, we revived the beloved Teddy Bears’ Picnic for its 35th anniversary! This event hosted over 35,000 participants for a fun family day filled with learning about health care and research. The Ice Crystal Gala’s Rhinestone Rodeo committee raised a record-breaking $1.5 million!

At the third annual Suspended Superheroes event in October, led by Voyageur Technical, first responders and donors donned costumes and safety harnesses to rappel down the side of HSC Children’s, thrilling kids looking out their windows and raising $50,000.

Throughout the year, kids in hospital also had special visits from AHL player and Hershey Bears captain Dylan McIlrath with the Calder Cup, Heather’s Pretty Parties characters, and players from the Winnipeg Jets, Winnipeg Sea Bears, and Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

With donor support, a framework for the development of the Indigenous Community Healing Space continues to move forward, taking the time to ensure First Nations, Métis, and Inuit voices are heard through consultations with Elders, Knowledge Keepers, Indigenous community members, and health care leaders.

Thanks to your generosity, CHRIM announced its newest research theme, PROMISE: Pediatric Research in Oncology in Manitoba: Innovation, Science, Excellence, which will help improve the outcomes for children and youth living with cancer.

We’re deeply grateful to our Children’s Miracle Network and Canada’s Children’s Hospital Foundations partners, like Walmart, The Brick and Costco, whose teams make important asks at the checkout for donations. Every dollar counts! And DQ® Canada’s Miracle Treat Day, which for 22 years has donated 100 per cent of proceeds from every Blizzard® Treat sold at participating locations!

We also thank Manitoba’s Credit Unions for their $250,000 contribution towards the creation of an indoor play space inside the Child & Adolescent Mental Health Unit. This important space recently opened and is being used daily by kids in care.

Big bear hugs to Heather and Bob Williams for matching donations of up to $400,000 for surgical needs, Qualico and anonymous donors matching donations on Giving Tuesday to raise more than $254,344 and the Talbot Family Foundation for matching donations at Dr. Goodbear’s Holiday Give-a-thon and throughout the holiday season – all to help kids who need life-saving surgical care.

This year we also had support from hundreds of sponsors and media partners who ensured the success of all our events and thousands of community events organized by good people doing amazing things to help kids in hospital. We could not do any of this without you all!

We packed a lot of good into 2024! We at the Children’s Hospital Foundation are truly grateful for your unwavering commitment to continue caring for kids. We are humbled by your dedication. As we move through 2025 together, let’s make anything possible.