Showing that their giving extends beyond the hospital walls and their challenging pandemic work, registered practical nurses, personal support workers, trades, and clerical, among others at Hamilton’s St. Joseph Health Care Centre are donating $14,000 to local community groups and charities this holiday season.
It is the third consecutive year that CUPE 786, representing more than 2200 front-line staff at St. Joe’s, has made a similar donation. Mission Service, Neighbour to Neighbour, Native Women’s Centre, Essential Aid, City Kidz, Homes for Heroes, and Make a Wish are this year’s donation recipients.
“We are immensely proud of the sacrifices and efforts that all our members at St. Joe’s have made over the course of the last 21 months working through the pandemic. We are equally proud that they continue to support our Hamilton community in other ways like these donations to support organizations that help so many more local families, children and individuals in crisis,” says Santo Cimino, CUPE 786 president.
While the COVID pandemic has taken its toll on exhausted hospital workers, many of our neighbours in Hamilton have lost income, their jobs and some their homes during this health crisis, says Cimino. “We are extremely mindful that we have responsibility to give back to others.”