The IMP Class of 2021 raised $2,572.56 for the Victoria Cool Aid Society’s (Cool Aid) Community Health Centre. The students, who are currently in their second year, raised the funds in a silent auction at the Victoria Medical Society’s (VMS) 15th Annual Student Welcome Dinner and Gala in January.
The class of 2021
“It was so wonderful and touching to hear that the medical students had chosen Cool Aid Society for the donation from the proceeds from their silent auction,” says Dr. Fraser Black, IMP’s assistant dean, student affairs. Dr. Black has also worked as one of the physicians at Cool Aid Community Health Centre for the past five years or so.
“I work with the medical students and know how passionate each and every one of them are at trying to help and to make a difference,” he says. “I also know and work with the patients at Cool Aid, and I know just how much this donation will mean to them individually.”
Cool Aid is a not-for-profit organization that provides housing, integrated health care and other support services to those living in poverty. Grey Showler, director, health and support services, says the Cool Aid Community Health Centre provides low-cost medical care to 4,500 active registered clients, and that number is steadily increasing. While the centre naturally loses some clients each year, it usually takes on an additional 600 people annually.
Showler and Dr. Black says the students’ donated funds will go into a direct client support fund.
“The donations allow our team to help clients buy non-insured items. These items and services improve the quality of life for clients and allow them to spend their limited incomes on necessities like food and shelter,” Dr. Black says.
While IMP’s second year students always run a silent auction at the VMS Welcome Dinner and Gala, each class can decide how they want to use the collected funds.
“We can choose whether all the proceeds go to charity—which is what we did—or whether some goes to charity and some goes towards travel for our rural rotations in third year,” says student Arielle Roberts (IMP Class of 2021), who helped run this year’s silent auction.
Arielle says the main reason her class voted to donate the funds to Cool Aid is that several students worked with the non-profit. “A number of our classmates have volunteered or shadowed at their clinic in the past and are passionate about the work that they do,” she says.
“We have had and love having medical students work with us,” says Dr. Black. “They come as students in their second, third, and fourth years as clinical experiences, and many of them have spent time with us as well through their FLEX projects or volunteering in areas of harm reduction, group medical visits for patients living with persistent pain, and our art table, which has been very popular. In fact, one of our current physicians was once a volunteer and an IMP student and now is working with us!”
If you would like to donate to Cool Aid, click the donate button at the top of Cool Aid’s homepage (coolaid.org). To donate specifically to the Cool Aid Community Health Centre, email medicalreception@coolaid.org.