Skip to Equip Classic raises $162,000

Tim Brody - Editor

After a milestone year last year, the 14th Annual Sioux Lookout Home Hardware Skip to Equip Classic not only met but exceeded last year’s total.
The women’s curling fundraiser, which has always emphasized the FUN in fundraising, is an annual fundraiser for the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre Foundation, the fundraising arm of the hospital.
Last year’s Skip to Equip Classic raised $160,000, bringing the total the event has raised in 13 years for the Foundation to over a million dollars.
The last few years, priority for the funds raised has been given to the MRI fund to bring MRI services to Sioux Lookout.
This year’s Skip to Equip Classic theme was “Hats Off” to fundraising for health care equipment, in recognition of that accomplishment and everyone who helped make it possible.
This year’s Sioux Lookout Home Hardware Skip to Equip Classic raised $162,000 for upgrades and purchase of much needed equipment at Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre (SLMHC).
Skip to Equip Committee Chair Kelli-Dawn Baker shared, “When that cheque turned around and I saw that number, I had a number in mind… when that cheque turned around and it was larger than the number I had in my mind, again, my heart swelled up.”
Twenty teams participated in this year’s women’s curling fundraiser, which took place at the Sioux Lookout Golf and Curling Club from Nov. 7 to Nov. 9.
Pledges gathered by participants, sponsorships, key draws, a silent auction, an online auction, and a 50\50 raffle all contributed to this year’s total.
Curlers from Sioux Lookout, Dryden, Ignace, Hamilton, and Thunder Bay participated in the event.
This year’s top pledge getters were Marlene MacDonald, Muriel Anderson, Kelli-Dawn Baker, Jackie Duhamel, Monique Mousseau, and Erica Mulville.
Monique Mousseau skipped this year’s top team.
Mousseau was joined by Lead Katie Positano, Second Carol Roy, and Third Amanda Bergman.
“I was excited to curl again with a great friend, Carol who traveled from the Hamilton area for the weekend. It’s been 8 years since she moved away from Sioux Lookout so to have her back curling again was just like old times and so much fun.”
Mousseau, a member of the event’s organizing committee said, “There are always great teams of women, making for a fantastic weekend of camaraderie and an enormous outpouring of support from participants and the Sioux Lookout community for such a worthy cause that directly benefits our community and area for the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre.”
During the event’s closing ceremonies, Murial Anderson and Natalie Popovic paid tribute to Gwenda Wilson and Cherie Coulombe, two avid curlers and regular participants at Skip to Equip who passed away in the last year. 
Sioux Lookout Home Hardware is the title sponsor of the event and will continue on in that role next year as well.
Sioux Lookout Home Hardware Owner and General Manager Eric Bortlis shared during the event’s closing ceremonies, “To be a part of this, it’s a true honour for the Home Hardware family, so we’re tremendously grateful for the chance to be able to do this.”
Commenting on last year’s total, Bortlis said, “I did some math on the population of Sioux Lookout, and if you figure $160,000, and you divide that up amongst the population, every single person in this town, gave over $25, technically speaking. That is incredible. It’s incredible! To put that into perspective, everybody’s been out fundraising for one reason or another. You don’t get 100 percent yeses, and when you do it’s not always $25. This community has so much heart and you’re at the centre of that. This event is at the centre of that.” 
SLMHC Foundation Board President Rob McClendon told those gathered during the event’s closing ceremonies, “It’s very humbling to be here representing the Foundation.”
He continued, “As you know, the Foundation is the heart of the financial support for the hospital and we’ve all just gone through a huge campaign to help make the MRI a success and all of you folks here have been a part of that. It is a success and construction has started, hopefully by late August next year we’re going to be able to have the MRI operational is what we’re being told right now. Next steps past that, is that we have to keep moving forward.’
The Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre just celebrated 15 years since its official opening.
McClendon stated, “As we move along, we’re finding that our CT scan is coming to end of life, they’re utilizing it right now but it’s causing more and more problems all the time, so that needs to be replaced and the hospital has that in the works, so there’s costs attached to that. Subsequent to that, we’re looking at end of life for other machinery… of course down the road we’re looking at a long-term care facility, after the mammography machine, so there’s always us having to reach out and ask for support… Once again, thank you all very much for this. We’re very pleased and very humbled that we can be here.”
Dr. Mary England spoke to those gathered at the closing ceremonies as both a local medical practitioner and a patient.
“I know that Skip to Equip has been behind some of the community’s biggest healthcare milestones from CT scanners to long-term care beds and now this MRI,” she said. 
“Ensuring that our community can have access to quality care at home, you all recognize the impact that this has on our community wellbeing,” she added, noting, “What you’ve accomplished is nothing short of extraordinary.”
England said of the money raised at the event supporting and enhancing local healthcare, “I feel it’s an opportunity for people to navigate their illness with people they know, trust, and love. When you see somebody that you are familiar with pushing you through that MRI or that CT scanner you feel your story matters and that you’re being looked after.”
She added, “It’s a reminder that healthcare isn’t just about treating illness, it’s truly caring for people.”
England shared her own experience with illness, having a few years ago received a breast cancer diagnosis.
“When I think about my perspective as a doctor, I think that when we bring services to town and we can keep healthcare here, it really does step up the quality. There’s an added accountability when I see patients, people who are also friends and people I see on the street.”
Skip to Equip Committee member Natalie Popovic commented, “From a marketing perspective, when I first started putting posters up and talking about this people used to ask a lot about, why do we need to raise money for the Foundation? They asked a lot of why and I think people understand now.”
She said of the event, “We’re getting the fun, we’re getting the camaraderie, we’re getting the feeling of community, we’re mentoring the next generation, and we’re doing it for a good cause.” 
Skip to Equip Committee member Jackie Duhamel added, “The momentum is just growing and growing.”
She said, “I think that there’s still an understanding, a really critical understanding, whatever is raised, like Kelli said, stays local and it’s to the benefit of everybody’s family and friends in this community. Every penny stays here.”
Looking at the success of the event over the years, she commented, “You can’t do it without the village. Whether you’re the person fundraising, whether you’re the person pledging, whether you’re the business that’s contributing, it takes a village.”
She added, “As long as there’s a need at the hospital, I believe that the community will recognize the need and want to be a part of something that is so great.”
Melissa Slade, Donor Relations/Operations Coordinator for the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre Foundation, said she was pleasantly surprised by this year’s total raised, “2024 was a big year and it was for a big purpose. $160,000 was a lot beat.”
She said of the event, “It’s for a great purpose. It’s a fun weekend and that we not only met last year’s huge amount but slightly exceeded it, was just icing on the cake.”
She said of the funds raised and the impact those dollars have on local healthcare, “It’s not just major campaigns, raising those funds and that support is equally important as it was for an MRI, just day to day to be able to equip this hospital so that we do have the best possible care here at home or close to home, rather than having to travel.”
The Skip to Equip Committee shared on the events Facebook page, “Thank you from the bottom of our hearts to our sponsors, community, participants, committee members, pledgers, volunteers and to anyone who helped spread the word or assisted in this momentous 
achievement!”
The 15th annual Sioux Lookout Home Hardware Skip to Equip Classic will be Nov. 13 to 15, 2026.