Sharon Brolund donates to CT Scanner Fund from birthday party
September 11, 2023, 10:49 am
Sierra D'Souza Butts, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Instead of asking for gift cards and presents for her 80th birthday, Sharon Brolund of Moosomin requested her friends and family to bring monetary donations, which she would donate to the community’s CT Scanner Fund.
As a result, Brolund raised a total of $1,365 from her birthday party, bringing Moosomin’s CT Scanner Fund to just over $100,000 now.
“It was my 80th birthday and I wanted to celebrate it my way, so we had a dance,” said Brolund smiling.
“People tend to bring you all sorts of cards, and I thought in lieu of cards I would have a toonie pot, but people put more than toonies in.
“I had a niece from Manitoba, she put $100 worth of toonies in because she thought it is such a good cause.
“People were very generous with what they donated.”
“My family wrote a cheque of $100, they don’t live here, but they did it because they thought it was for a great cause.”
Brolund chose to donate to the CT Scanner Fund because of her personal experience of having to travel to the city for CT scan services.
“Because I’m a senior, if I have to have a CT Scan I have to go out of town, and sometimes it’s not easy,” she said.
“I’ve quit driving in the cities, my kids take me.”
Wendy Lynd of the Moosomin and District Health Care Foundation said the thought process of Brolund’s donation was very creative.
“I think it was a great idea. We’ve had donations in the past for anniversaries or birthdays, but never in this amount,” said Lynd.
“I thought it was a really creative idea of Sharon, she thought she should share it with the community.”
Brolund’s had around 100 people attend her party.
“She told us two years ago that she was going to have a dance for her birthday,” said Brolund’s son, Mike Brolund.
“She wanted family to get together and reconnect because you know, families grow up, you grow apart and start doing their own thing, you don’t get together for Christmas or Thanksgiving anymore.
“The next time you get together is for funerals, well this wasn’t a funeral, this was a celebration and a great opportunity for family to reconnect.
“All of her friends she’s met going to dances over the years, they just love to dance. A first note from the band they were all up dancing.
“She missed once dance the whole afternoon, it was pretty incredible.”
Although fundraising for the CT Scan fun has not officially started, the health foundation has received various donations from people in the community.
“We get a lot of donations from all demongraphics for sure, but most are made in memory of people. The majority I would say,” said Lynd.
“I thought this donation was a nice fun, positive idea.
“We’re just over $100,000, maybe $110,000, but we’re slowly getting there.
“We haven’t actively started fundraising. We’re waiting for a written approval and then we’ll do some fundraising.
“There’s lots of non-profit organizations and businesses that are ready to support us, which is wonderful, but we want to hold off until we get approval.”
