Companies serve fundraising lunch in support of new MRI machine

Tim Brody - Editor

The official fundraising campaign hasn’t even begun, yet another donation has already been received to help make an MRI unit a reality in Sioux Lookout.
On Friday, April 14th, The Forest Inn, Sunset Inn and Suites and Sioux Lookout Home Hardware hosted a fundraising take-out lunch, with all funds raised being donated to the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre Foundation for the new MRI machine.
Karamjeet (Kam) Singh, regional manager for the Forest Inn & Conference Centre and Sunset Suites, as well as Assistant General Manager for Home Hardware in Sioux Lookout, said the response for the fundraising lunch was overwhelming with more than 300 people served.
“It was really, really great. We appreciate the community who came out,” he said.
“The idea was that this is a religious day (Vaisakhi) for us in India, so we thought we would use that theme in Canada and in town, supporting the community by raising funds. So, typically free food we usually serve on this day for everyone but instead of serving free food we thought maybe it will be a good idea, with the support of the Foundation, we can raise some funds for the MRI machine.”
Singh said he was proud of the hard work staff of the three companies put into the fundraising lunch, “They’ve been working tirelessly for the last three days. Prepping for 300 people is not an easy task for a small kitchen… They should know the company, the community, really recognized their efforts.”
Melissa Slade, Donor Relations/Operations Coordinator, Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre Foundation, said the event brought in over $4200.
“Again, we couldn’t have done it without the support of our awesome community and generous businesses like the Forest Inn, Home hardware and the Sunset Inn along with their amazing staff and tireless work,” she said.
“I think it’s been just a great indication of the community togetherness and support for not only the Foundation but the community as whole,” Slade added. “We haven’t officially kicked off this MRI campaign, yet here this community steps up again and these great people have stepped up to approach us with an opportunity where they see they would be able to help without us even having to ask and so I think that in itself speaks volumes of our community and of the togetherness here in town, that we’re all trying to come together for this purpose and to be successful in these endeavors and goals that we have to keep our community a place that people want to be, that they’re able to live, and that they’re able to be successful.”