SMART ORs (Operating Rooms)

One hundred percent of all moneys raised from this years Mining for Miracles events is directed to upgrading  BC Children’s Hospital’s two operating theatres into “SMART ORs”. Smart ORs are modern operating rooms that are designed for today's surgical procedures and medical technology. They accommodate larger surgical teams and the advanced equipment they require. This allows children to be treated with minimally invasive surgical techniques and translates to less recovery time, less trauma, and correspondingly decreases waiting times.

Did you know...
• BC Children’s Hospital receives more than 168,000 visits by patients each year from sick and injured children from across the province.

• BC Children’s is the only pediatric health centre and teaching hospital in BC, and the largest full-service child health centre in Canada.

• Last year 11,000 children in BC required surgery for life-threatening injury and illness. The number continues to grow.

• 1,100 children are treated each year at BC Children’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, the only one in the province.

• 35,000 children visit BC Children’s Emergency Room each year. That’s more than 95 sick kids every day.

• 400 children and their families visit BC Children’s for treatment and care every day.

• More than 680 premature infants and critically-ill newborns are treated each year in the Special Care Nursery.

• There are 150 newly diagnosed cases of childhood cancer in the province each year. BC Children’s treats more than 8,000 youngsters with cancer on an outpatient basis.

• One in every 100 children in BC is born with heart disease, and all of them are treated at BC Children’s Hospital.

• 54,000 diagnostic imaging procedures are conducted in Radiology, which operates the only pediatric MRI scanner in BC.

RETURN ON INVESTMENT

Even the tickets for a 1.1 carat diamond draw rocked! Ticket sales were up 30% from last year when generic tickets were used. Attending to such details pays dividends.

 

 

 

 

Mining Rocks

Raising $1,674,000 to benefit BC Children’s Hospital Foundation at a single event is a significant undertaking and takes a coordinated effort from many people. It is a project that Red Rocket is proud to have participated in. The lunchtime, free attendance event involved a celebrity pie throw and rock ‘n roll concert that was headlined by the Juno Award winning, Vancouver based rocker Colin James and hosted by Global TV’s Wayne Cox. The event included an appearance by Premier Gordon Campbell and was well covered by the media.

Red Rocket was instrumental in creating the Mining Rocks theme, developing graphic standards and executing the deliverables for all related touch points: staging, wayfinding, displays, food tent signage, t-shirts, and mascot (see story below).

The event was well attended and the squeals of delight were plentiful whenever a pie was “delivered.” This is how it works. Two people are matched as partners (or adversaries) – one the pie-ee (receiver), one the pie-er. Whomever raises more money is the pie-er thus providing clear motivation to fundraise. The combined total of their fundraising efforts defines the value of the particular pie. Teck Cominco through employee, vendor and partner contributions was able to raise over $1,000,000 to pie its President and CEO, Don Lindsay. Mining for Miracles mascot Buddy was given the privilege of delivering that particular lemon meringue pie.

The festival atmosphere was completed by a rock’n performance by Colin James and his accomplished band. It was a truly memorable day.

 

Bringing Buddy to Life

Buddy started life as a stylized illustration emulating a child’s drawing of a miner. You could tell right from start that he was special. Even as a simple pencil sketch he worked tirelessly as the official icon for the Mining for Miracles campaign. He remained two dimensional until 2006 when he was transformed into a very huggable plush toy and became the Canada’s un-official ambassador to the China Mining Congress where he was an undeniable success. At that event he was awarded with the top prize as the best show give-a-way.

His travels and popularity made him larger than life and inspired us to help Buddy achieve his life’s dream—to become real. He was delivered to us on April 16, 2007 and stands before you now in his first public appearance at the Mining Rocks event. There are challenges with translating a sketch into three dimensions, but the team at Red Rocket rose to the occasion.

Some interesting information on Buddy:
He has size 22 feet.
His favourite ice cream is Rocky Road.
His favourite pie is lemon meringue.
His girlfriend’s name is Betty.