Trinity CaMSA donates toys to children at MCMH

Members of the Canadian Medical Students Association (CaMSA) Chapter of Trinity School of Medicine paid a visit to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital on Tuesday, December 15, with arms full of gifts destined for the children under the care of the Social Welfare Department of the hospital.{{more}}

CaMSA president and term four student Athena Tudino explained that while the immediate goal of her association was to bring Christmas cheer, they are also looking to make the act of donating to this department of the hospital an on-going venture.

“On behalf of CaMSA, the Canadian Medical Students Association, I would like to present these gifts to you to distribute to some of the children on the island. Hopefully, they can bring some holiday cheer to them,” she told social worker Odelia Thomas.

Tudino went on to express her organization’s desire to become more involved with the Social Welfare Department.

“We hope to make this a year-long project and as we have all the Canadian students involved now, hopefully we are going to be collecting more items over the break and having it shipped down, for when we return from the Christmas vacation. If we can get a more specific list, we will be more than happy to help out.”

Another member of the delegation, third term student Daniel Rodé, intimated that more assistance would be forthcoming from the entire student body at Trinity.

“I actually feel real good about this, and if we get all the students involved, I’m sure everyone – not just the Canadians – will be happy to share their Christmas spirit.”

Odelia Thomas, social worker at the health care facility, in her response expressed her gratitude for the gesture.

“I’m very thankful for this. When Dr Jack called to let me know of your coming, I was so excited. I was especially thinking of the children who would be on the ward on Christmas Day, whose joy would be enhanced with a gift.” The social worker explained that she had initially made a very long list for the CaMSA donors as, among the children that she sees on a daily basis are also children who are not hospitalized, but who come from homes requiring the service.

“I was thinking that I couldn’t just give one child in the home a gift, if it’s a needy home,” she stated, “there would be other children in the home who would appreciate a gift as well.”

As discussions ensued, the CaMSA members were able to better develop ideas for a project of continued donations to the Department.

“Part of our idea is that at home, we give out care packages at Christmas,” explained Tudino, “and especially for families in need, Christmas is a good starting point, but ideally with our association that is something we’d like to continue.”

She said that they would like to be able to put together packages, especially for high-risk families, according to their specific needs.

Together with Thomas, they were able to construct a list of items that will be essential to both clients in the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital and in homes which access care. The initial results of this collaboration are expected to be seen shortly.