Stefano’s Stories: ensuring a future of caring for kids

May 2022

A family with a 6-month-old child in hospital, a retiree who volunteers time sewing preemie baby blankets, and you – reading this right now – all have something in common. You understand the value of a child’s health.

Since 1971, donors like you have contributed more than $150 million to Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba to help sick and injured kids get the care they need.

Community generosity, coupled with a great track record of fiscal responsibility, ensures ongoing improvement in healthcare. Improvements like the purchase of Canada’s first Zeiss microscope, which enables pediatric neurosurgeons to see around corners in the brain and perform intricate brain surgery.  Or building a new state-of-the art Children’s Heart Centre to ensure the smallest hearts get the best care. Or having more than 300 internationally renowned researchers focused on childhood disease here in Manitoba at the Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba.

Meredith McArthur recognizes the importance of the Foundation in the excellence at HSC Winnipeg Children’s Hospital and in child health research.

Meredith and husband Brian are monthly donors. She has also volunteered with the Foundation and has met families that the hospital helps. And she knows Foundation staff are deeply committed to the cause because many of them have had their own children or grandchildren need care at HSC Children’s. Because of all this, Meredith and Brian recently updated their wills to add a line of bequest to the Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba Inc. and know this future gift will be used where the need is greatest.

I know people sometimes get uncomfortable talking about wills or bequests, but it’s a great way to help your loved ones understand what is important to you, and enables you to have an impact, long into the future.

Meredith encourages people to consider it: “Oh, please do it! The hospital strives daily to provide excellent healthcare and is making real advances through research. Their goal is to have all children well, happy and on the road to becoming healthy, functioning adults. Legacy gifts will make that happen.”

Jillian Renaud knows how important these gifts are and appreciates donors like Meredith and Brian.

At six months old, Jillian’s son Mitchell had a minor fall that ended up with a trip to HSC Children’s Emergency. There, a CT scan showed the largest epidural hematoma doctors had ever seen in a baby. Mitchell needed urgent, lifesaving neurosurgery.  Jillian says, “The doctors that saved Mitchell are our forever heroes.”

You can ensure the future of caring for kids by making the Foundation a beneficiary of a bequest in your will or of other assets like insurance policies.

It is simple statement but a powerful one.

In fact, your planned legacy gift can be your most powerful way to ensure brighter, better futures for children.

To learn more about leaving a bequest or legacy gift to Children’s Hospital Foundation of Manitoba, contact Courtney Nodrick at 204-894-9043 or cnodrick@goodbear.ca, or speak with your financial advisor.

Read more Stefano’s Stories

• Stefano’s Stories: from lab to bedside