PROTECTING THE LIVES OF YOU AND YOUR FAMILY VISIT RCMSAR.COM TO DONATE
March • 2022
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Saving Lives on the Water: Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue When you hear a VHF radio, tuned to marine emergency channel 16, squawk to life, our marine search and rescue volunteers go on high alert. Hearing “Pan-Pan” or “Mayday” means a mariner’s life is in danger and needs assistance urgently. Persons missing, in medical distress or collisions, onboard fires, mechanical failures, and boats taking on water are many of the missions that the volunteer-based Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue (RCMSAR) tackles. A registered charity, RCMSAR saves hundreds of lives on the water each year by responding to marine emergencies supporting the Canadian Coast Guard, the Canadian Armed Forces and the Province when needed. Over 900 volunteers from more than 30 marine search and rescue (SAR) stations conduct hundreds of missions, training exercises, volunteering thousands of hours to protect the lives of you and your family. On-call 24 hours a day, we serve
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communities across Vancouver Island, the north coast and Haida Gwaii, along the Sunshine Coast, the Lower Mainland, and inland waters of the Shuswap. Notable missions include RCMSAR Station 2 in North Vancouver participating in a dramatic rescue of 17 wayward paddleboarders that were drawn toward the shipping channel beneath the Lions Gate Bridge. Last August, near Nanaimo, RCMSAR Station 27 rescued a family with
a two-and-a-half-year-old who became stranded on a small rocky island after their boat was destroyed during high winds and rough seas. During last summer’s wildfires, RCMSAR Station 106 was responsible for keeping boaters at bay in the Shuswap, clearing the BC Wildfire Service’s access to water on the lake. On the North Coast near Hartley Bay, RCMSAR Station 70 responded to a vessel on fire and persons in the water in the
early hours one night last July. Two of our crews arrived on the scene, extinguished the fire before it reached the shore and searched for survivors. Two survivors were transported to shore to attending nurses; the vessel sank, and two lives were unfortunately lost. Our volunteers have experienced that proud feeling of saving lives on the water but also the immense weight of loss for those who did not make it. While facing the inherent risks that come with
saving lives, RCMSAR continues to serve our communities in the face of COVID-19 meeting increased calls for help as more people take to the water. Yet, saving these lives on the water is impossible without the support of community members like you. RCMSAR receives funding from the federal and provincial governments. However, these amounts do not meet our total financial needs. RCMSAR volunteers must fundraise for their own life-saving equipment, vessels, and other costs to keep local stations open and operational. Consider a gift in support of RCMSAR volunteers who stand ready to leave their jobs and families at a moment's notice. Your support will provide critical training and equipment our volunteers need to save lives— and stay safe while doing it! Visit www.rcmsar.com to learn more and make a charitable donation today.
Dolly Parton’s Dollywood to Pay For Employees’ College Tuition Dolly Parton has offered to cover 100 percent of Dollywood employees’ college fees. The 76-year-old country music legend and humanitarian has been praised after her Dollywood
Parks & Resorts in Tennessee announced that from February 24, it will foot the bill for the tuition and book expenses “for any employee who chooses to pursue further education.” Dollywood has 11,000 full
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and part-time and seasonal workers of all ages at their 25 attractions in the U.S. President Eugene Naughton said: “When our hosts strive to grow themselves, it makes our business and our community a truly better place.” Dollywood is co-owned by Herschend Enterprises, whose CEO Andrew Wexler insisted: “We care about our hosts’ development, and we want their future to grow because of love, not loans.” In 2018, Dollywood announced a $37 million expansion. The ‘9 to 5’ hitmaker’s theme park near Knoxville opened a new nature-themed land, Wildwood Grove, in 2019, which cost more than the whole park did when it was first built three decades ago. Wildwood Grove was the first new area to be added to Dollywood since Wilderness Pass in 2008 and was part of the $300 million investment
commitment the Dollywood Company made in 2013. Dollywood President Craig Ross said at the time: “We’ve been investing heavily. This will be one of the final pieces to the $300 million commitment we made over 10 years’ time. We’re actually a few years ahead of schedule.” And Dolly jokingly added: “Yeah we are, and I’m going to have to get out there and make some more money.” Dolly herself heavily influenced the recent addition. She said: “I’m not in every meeting, of course, and they work without me, but they also like to draw on my childhood, my background, and talk about what was important to me as a kid, the kind of things we did as children living in the mountains. “And this is about like kids just exploring nature, and we were part of that because we didn’t have a lot of things like Dollywood and places like
that to go then, so we really were part of nature and all the things that this area is all about, so it’s fun to actually sit and throw my ideas out and get excited about theirs. “We were talking about the fact that kids don’t get out in nature enough anymore. Everybody’s so caught up in all their gadgets, all the social media, all the things that they do in their games, their video games, and all the stuff that they do that they don’t actually even know there’s an outdoors hardly anymore. “So we felt like this was a great thing that we could do for kids to really explore and to be adventurous and to find their own little true self, their own little natural selves, rather than all the technical stuff.” The generous gesture comes after the Hollywood star made a $1 million donation to help fund the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. —Reuters ADVERTORIAL
TB Vets Gift of Breath to Preemies
Arming frontline medical heroes in the fight for respiratory health Watching your child grow up is among the great pleasures of parenthood. For Vivian, pregnant with twins in 2019, the “giggling phase” was among the moments she was most looking forward to experiencing. But one of the first and most natural milestones for newborns became an immediate and
BABY KIERAN WITH MOM © TB VETS
urgent concern when Vivian gave birth prematurely at British Columbia Women’s Hospital in Vancouver, Canada. The tiny boys, Kieran and Corbin, needed to breathe. That’s where donors to TB Vets Charitable Foundation had a critical role in helping save the lives of these fragile newborns. For over 75 years, TB Vets Charitable Foundation has been funding critical respiratory equipment at B.C. hospitals. And TB Vets donors are the lifeline of this mission! “Both twins were ventilated right after birth,” Vivian says. “Kieran and Corbin were able to move to Continuous Positive Airway Pressure ventilator later in the day. However, Corbin struggled, and was reintubated.” Some babies may only need respiratory assistance for a short time. For others, the help may last weeks. In his case, Corbin spent more than a month being intubated. Thanks to the generosity of its donors, TB Vets was able to
fund neo-natal ventilators at B.C. Women’s Hospital and other hospitals across the province so babies like Corbin can receive the respiratory care they urgently need. Because of several challenges, Corbin was placed on a jet ventilator, specially designed to lessen the risk of trauma to a baby’s lungs. He remained on a ventilator while the family awaited his surgery to treat complications from a bleed in the brain. Fortunately, just after Christmas and following his operation, Corbin was extubated and moved to a gentler form of breathing assistance as he built enough strength to breathe on his own. Ninety-two days after arriving in the neonatal intensive care unit and five days after his brother left, Corbin was finally able to go home. These days, Vivian can enjoy the moments she had imagined during her pregnancy. “It’s a great stress relief just to make them giggle and relax,” she says.
She is grateful to those who make it possible for hospitals like B.C. Women’s to access the latest in lifesaving technology. “Thank you deeply for your generosity,” she says. “Our family wouldn’t be complete without supporters like you. Your contributions have made differences not just in my family, but in the many families I’ve met throughout our time in NICU.” ABOUT TB VETS Founded as an initiative to provide employment to WWII veterans suffering from tuberculosis, TB Vets has grown over the following decades into what it is today: a leading charitable foundation funding respiratory equipment, research and education in British Columbia and beyond. Every year TB Vets funds approximately 20 ventilators, provides bursaries to respiratory therapy students, contributes to lung research, and continues to support the TB Ward at
Join us in our fight for better respiratory care in BC. tbvets.org
Vancouver General Hospital where the sickest tuberculosis patients receive life-saving treatment. With your help, TB Vets can continue arming the medical frontline in the fight for better respiratory care in British Columbia and beyond! www.tbvets.org/donate
TWINS KIERAN AND CORBIN © TB VETS
