COVID-19 might have put a damper on some fundraising efforts throughout its two-year hold on the world, but the Almonte Hospital says things are about to change — or rather, go back to the same.
For its annual golfing tournament, Al Roberts, general manager of the hospital, things will go back to normal — with COVID-19 protocols in place, of course.
That’s right — no hybrid or virtual event this time around. The June 10 event is going ahead live and in-person.
That’s the plan, anyway.
With hundreds of people participating in the event, Roberts told The Sam Laprade Show on Monday, February 7 that not only is this golf tournament a way to raise money for the hospital, but it helps out the local economy, too.
“Businesses need to be able to get back to functioning relatively normally, and so the fact we’re going to try and move forward and do out events the way we used to do them is a really great sign.”
Over the past couple of years, like any organization that has had to rely on fundraising, organizers had to get creative.
That meant a lot of virtual and hybrid events, like with its annual Fall Run to raise money for the hospital’s birthing centre, which welcomes between 350 to 450 babies into the world annually.
Some of the ways the hospital made up for its fundraising was through trivia nights held on Zoom and having a couple of virtual galas that had music, entertainment, and food delivered to the doors of attendees.
“We’ve done extremely well with donations throughout the pandemic,” Roberts said. “The needs of the hospitals do not change. They need money for capital equipment, and they need money to bring a CAT Scan to Almonte, so we had to continue to forge ahead to do that.”
And while Roberts said he doesn’t have a crystal ball, he anticipates the first time back to the green to be a success.
