The PRHC Mombassadors
The Peterborough Regional Health Centre is a central building in our community. We drive by it frequently, there are signs all over the city pointing in the direction of its location. It is a building that each one of us needs to be in the best possible condition every. single. day. More often than not, people do not make plans to use the hospital. It just happens. Our lives can turn on a dime and we can find ourselves at 1 Hospital Drive. Making sure members of our community have access to world-class equipment when they need it most is a passion that was “born” when my daughter Ava arrived in the world, all 5 pounds and 2 ounces of her. She needed the support of a radiant warming bed for the first week of her life. I didn’t realize at the time, but much of the equipment at PRHC, like the very bed Ava was in, was funded by community donations.
In 2018, when I was invited to join a group of 20 incredible women with similar experiences in the NICU, I jumped at the opportunity. We called ourselves The PRHC Foundation Mombassadors.
As the Chair, I feel honoured to lead this amazing group of women who share this passion with me. I am often amazed at their dedication, talents and willingness to volunteer their unique gifts and their precious time. It has been quite humbling to watch the PRHC Foundation Mombassadors snowball from our inaugural event to a year-round, full-fledged advocacy group. We run small pop-up events throughout the year, we have merchandise and host our marquee event, “Girls Night Out” just before Mother’s Day.
2020 brought difficult challenges, leaving us with the difficult decision to cancel our events. You can imagine our surprise, delight and gratitude that so many of our sponsors decided to 
continue their support and we were able to raise just over fifty thousand dollars in this difficult season. We cannot be more proud of our community.
Since our inauguration just three short years ago, we have raised a whopping two hundred thousand dollars. We have purchased a wireless fetal heart monitor, radiant warming beds, UV Jaundice Treatment Lamp and a ventilator.
These pieces of life-saving equipment have already saved hundreds of babies and put countless parents at ease. We are proud to tell you that the women of the Mombassadors have made it possible for twins to stay in Peterborough instead of being separated and so that local families don’t have to incur the stress and cost of travel to Toronto. Through our work and with the help of this amazing community, Doctors and parents don’t have to make the decision which twin gets to use the ventilator because now we have two.
We are proud to tell you that the radiant warming bed we helped to fund allows fragile newborn babies to be monitored for light, temperature and noise. This new warming bed also allows the wonderful staff to work on the baby from all sides if the baby goes into distress.
We have a community that came together to make these purchases possible and we are forever grateful. But we are not done yet. After the incredible accomplishment of raising two hundred thousand dollars for the PRHC Foundation, we will take applications in 2021 for a possible new partnership.
Stay tuned for our call for charitable organizations to pitch to our group.
Follow us on social media:
Instagram: @prhcmombassadors,
Facebook: PRHC Foundation Mombassadors, #myhospitalmybaby
