July 20, 2010
Surrey Memorial Hospital Foundation > News & Events > Media Room > July 20, 2010

McHappy Day tally: more than $38,000 for Surrey Memorial Hospital

Surrey, B.C. – 71 McDonald’s restaurants from throughout the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley combined to raise $38,367.17 for Surrey Memorial Hospital Foundation during this year’s McHappy Day.

The May 5th fundraising drive, with volunteers including political leaders, police officers, firefighters and paramedics, saw restaurants donate one dollar from every Big Mac sandwich, McMuffin sandwich and Happy Meal sold. Customers frequently added to the donation with their own personal contributions.

“McDonald’s enthusiasm for McHappy Day was matched by their customers,” says Foundation Chair Jacy Wingson. “We even had one person pull up to the drive-through and hand a hundred dollar bill to a Foundation representative.”

The amount raised is part of McDonald’s pledge of $200,000 towards Surrey Memorial Hospital Foundation’s Emergency Centre Campaign. The gift will go towards pediatric emergency care.

Surrey Memorial Hospital’s current ER – the busiest in B.C. - was designed to handle about 44-thousand visits a year but instead saw more than 87-thousand patients last year. Of those patients, 20% were children.

The new Emergency Centre will include a separate children’s ER, as well as a separate mental health and addictions section, an enhanced minor treatment unit, and an improved area for acute patients.

The children’s section will be bright and family-oriented and will include fully-equipped nursing stations as well as a dedicated bed area. The Emergency Centre will be part of the Critical Care Tower project, with construction scheduled to begin in 2011.

Since McHappy Day was introduced in 1977, the national one-day fundraising event has raised nearly $32 million for RMHC, the Ronald McDonald House® program and local children’s charities across Canada. In addition, McDonald's donates 10 cents from every Happy Meal sold every day in Canada to RMHC which has raised more than $27 million to date. As a result of the continued McHappy Day success in Canada, it will now be celebrated annually worldwide – uniting McDonald’s restaurants around the world in support of children in need.

Established in 1992, Surrey Memorial Hospital Foundation has raised more than $50 million to purchase medical equipment, fund innovative programs, and support training and research. Click here to donate.

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For more information or interviews, contact:

Jason Howe
Public Affairs Director
Surrey Memorial Hospital Foundation
604-585-5666 ext 778284
cell: 604-613-6873
jason.howe{at}fraserhealth.ca
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