LGH Foundation Christmas Card Contest takes on added significance after winning entry is chosen
Each year, Lions Gate Hospital Foundation runs a contest looking for artwork to adorn its charity Christmas cards that bring in funds to help enhance patient care on the North Shore.
High school and intermediate elementary school students from across the North Shore are invited to submit a bright and colourful piece of festive artwork that embodies the North Shore.
This year, the Foundation received over 20 pieces of artwork. These were shortlisted and adjudicated by a panel of judges, including acclaimed North Shore artist Cori Creed, Karin Olson, COO of Lions Gate Hospital and the Coastal Community of Care, and, Edith Warner, Curator of the Foundation’s in-hospital art program featuring 224 works of art.
The judges were unanimous in choosing this year’s winner – Rosemary Gong – a grade 7 student from Dorothy Lynas Elementary in North Vancouver. The Foundation notified Rosemary of her win and let her know that this year the funds raised from the cards would go to our Hospice Expansion Campaign.
What the Foundation didn’t know but have since learned from the head of palliative care, Dr. Peter Edmunds, is that Rosemary’s mom was recently in the hospice.
She was 51 years old and was diagnosed with cancer in July 2014. During her treatment she was cared for by staff in the palliative program on 7W (palliative inpatient unit), at home, and ultimately, spent the rest of her time in the North Shore Hospice. While visiting her mom back in September, Rosemary happened to see the Christmas Card Contest poster in the elevator at LGH. She entered and then won. Her mom was so overjoyed that Rosemary had won the contest and even more so when she was able to see the finished card with her daughter’s photo on the back.
Now, Rosemary’s artwork is going to help improve the services that her Mom and her family all benefited from during one of the most challenging times of their lives.
To purchase, please visit the Foundation office, on the first floor of Lions Gate Hospital, at a cost of $20 for one pack or $50 for three packs.
Rosemary Gong, whose artwork adorns the Foundation’s Christmas card this year, found about the contest after seeing a poster at LGH while visiting her mother in palliative care.