Fundraising efforts to bring a portable ultrasound machine to Jasper are in full swing, and an outpouring of community support has helped the Ladies Hospital Auxiliary pass the halfway point on its mission to collect $60,000.
Declan Unsworth, the Jasper doctor who was part of the original push to bring an ultrasound machine to town, said that at last count the group had collected $31,500.
Money has poured in from across the community, with everyone from the high school’s peer support group to local grocers to the Bellmen’s Auction holding fundraisers and pitching in.
And it doesn’t look like that generosity is going to dry up any time soon.
Over the next few weeks a number of Jasper businesses are holding fundraising events to raise money for the machine.
April 4 the Jasper Legion is bringing in the Calgary-based band Cowpuncher for a show, with all proceeds from ticket sales going to the ultrasound fund. At the concert, organizers are also holding a raffle, with tickets to the Jasper, Calgary and Canmore folk music festivals up for grabs.
A week later, on April 11, Smitty’s Family Restaurant is hosting an Asian Night. Alfred Kong and Marianne Lau will put on an enormous spread of Asian food, with samplings from across the region.
The restaurant will be elaborately decorated, and Kong, who will make the meal, said everything from ginger garlic salad to Korean sushi to Thai chicken curry will be on the menu.
“It’s going to be a lot of food,” he said.
Along with the meal, Kong said there will be a performance by local musician Tom Price, a photo booth, cash bar and silent auction, with prizes donated by Whistler’s Inn and others.
“It [will be] very fancy, very nice, culturally enlightening, and most of all will raise money for the mobile ultrasound,” he said, urging anyone who’s interested to pick up their tickets fast, as they are only selling 100, and less than 30 are left.
The Jasper Brewing Company is also getting in on the action, with brewer John Palko concocting a special ultrasound fundraising brew that will launch next month.
Palko said he has 750 litres of cream ale in the conditioning tank right now, which “is tasting pretty good.”
Once it’s ready, he will bottle half of it, and serve the rest as draft. Two dollars from every bottle sold, and around three from each pint will go to the ultrasound fund, and Palko estimated that altogether the Brew Pub will be able to raise about $3,000.
There are mutterings of other fundraising events on the horizon as well, and Unsworth guessed that the $60,000 goal might be met in the next couple of months, “if things continue to go at this pace.”
“I’ve been really impressed with how many people have been jumping on board” with fundraising efforts, he said.
According to Unsworth, a portable ultrasound machine will allow emergency medical staff in Jasper to make quicker and more accurate diagnoses across a broad spectrum of areas. It can help diagnose heart failure, retinal detachment, septic shock, gallbladder pathology and help in assessing musculoskeletal injuries, among other things.
Once the Ladies Hospital Auxiliary has collected the $60,000 it needs to purchase the machine, Unsworth estimates that the ultrasound could be in Jasper within a couple of weeks.
He also said he has already been approached by an Edmonton radiologist who has offered to train Jasper’s medical staff to use the machine.
Trevor Nichols
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