EMILY HSUEH
SHAWVILLE Feb. 17, 2021
Frontline workers at the Pontiac Hospital and Pontiac Reception Centre (CAP) will be eating well thanks to the deeds of a small group of 4H members.
On Feb. 17, four 4H members and two parents showed up to the Pontiac Hospital at 3 p.m. armed with a bag packed full of . . .
200 envelopes. Inside each was a gift card to either Hursty’s Bar and Grill or Café 349 in Shawville.
“It’s just an opportunity to give back to the community,” said Mike Rusenstrom, a parent of one of the club members. “Right now with the restrictions, you can’t [go out]. So they decided to do gift cards from a couple of local businesses. We thought with gift cards, the hospital will be able to distribute them to all the staff.”
The club had wanted to do something like this for frontline workers in the past, but because of changing health regulations, they were not able to come up with a plan until recently.
“Initially the club talked about it last year, but then of course all of the [restrictions]. So it was kind of agreed on midway last year, but it was just kind of finding a way that we could do something for staff. Obviously setting up a barbecue for them doesn’t work right now so we came up with this idea.”
They presented the gifts to Trevor Tanguay, the hospital’s technical service manager; Natalie Romain, the nursing manager and Annick Angrignon, the long-term care manager at the hospital. They then proceeded to meet CAP manager Sophie Bonin to hand off the rest of the gifts.
