Patty Olexin-Lang is the current Executive Director for the Stanton Territorial Hospital Foundation. For 17 plus years, she’s been helping out the group in different roles and even remembers how the organization got started
“In 1995, the health board at the time identified the need for supplementary means of obtaining funds in order to purchase equipment for Stanton fast forward a year,The Stanton Territorial Hospital Foundation was incorporated. In December of 1996, some of the, the first board members were the likes of Dr.Hassan Adam, Who’s still here longtimer and past, late Tony Chang and many others that have served on the board. We have to thank them for, for getting the foundation up and running.”
What the foundation does is it helps fundraise to get funds, to get new equipment of all kinds for Stanton territorial hospital, based on a wishlist that is given to them by Stanton.
One of the initiatives that The Stanton Territorial Hospital Foundation partnered up to do was the C I B C Run For Our Lives. This started in 2005 and was to help support breast cancer initiatives in the Northwest Territories
In 2014, the committee transitioned from supporting only breast cancer initiatives to include all cancer types and they have made a considerable impact on cancer care here in the Northwest Territories.
Being a born and raised Yellowknifer Patty has gotten to see how caring the north can be on more than a handful of occasions and continues to see this. Whenever The Foundation fundraises.
“Just growing up here, you see how people can give back in so many ways, just over the last few years with COVID and the flooding in Fort Simpson, Hay River, any kind of, you know, house fire or somebody has, you know, a tragedy in, in their family or, or whatsoeverYellowknife and people, they just step up. There’s no question. You know, if you’re on social media, you see the blow up of people responding and such to whatever the situation is.
It’s in, it’s incredible. The territories and Jellowknife, the people are, have to be credited and the businesses for just plain old giving back.” -Patty Olexin-Lang Executive Director for the Stanton Territorial Hospital Foundation
