Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation Has Students' and Families' Hearts in Mind
Published Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Proudly presenting a donation of $25,000 to the Our Hearts at Home Cardiovascular Campaign, to bring a full cardiovascular surgery program to Northwestern Ontario are, from the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation District 6A, (l-r) Maureen Denford-Cox, Kari Simpson, Rich Seeley and Shelley Crupi, with Jim Glena, Campaign Cabinet.
By Heather Vita
With the recent launch of the Our Hearts At Home Cardiovascular Campaign to bring a full cardiovascular surgery program to Northwestern Ontario, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF), District 6A, wanted to contribute, knowing how much the program will impact students and families in Thunder Bay. They very generously made a donation of $25,000 to keep hearts at home.
District and Teacher President Rich Seeley explained, “Our organization represents over 1,000 educational workers including Secondary School Teachers, Education Assistants and Early Childhood Educators from the Lakehead District School Board and Student Support Professionals from the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board. Together we’re committed to protecting and enhancing public education. Part of that means making sure that our students and their families can be cared for here in their home community so there’s less worry about travelling out of town and missing out on education.”
Continued Seeley, “All of us know someone who’s needed to leave town to access the types of life-saving surgeries that will be available here soon, and so we were very eager to contribute to the cardiovascular campaign.”
“Often we are called upon to look after medically-fragile children,” said Maureen Denford-Cox, President of Thunder Bay Catholic Student Support Professionals. “You see how a serious illness can affect the whole family. So it’s nice to be able to give back to a program that’s making it easier for families to be together here at home.”
Concluded Seeley, “As a member of the community, it’s so important to us at the OSSTF to work to improve it. We’re very proud to be celebrating our 100th year in existence and I can’t think of a better way to mark this occasion than by giving to the cardiovascular surgery program.”