NEWS RELEASE
ORILLIA SOLDIERS' MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
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The Smilezone Foundation is shifting gears in the current pandemic environment by creating the Safe Smile Mask Campaign to ensure children receiving medical, mental and emotional support services at partner healthcare facilities, like Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital, have a mask to wear.
The Smilezone Foundation transforms waiting rooms, patient care rooms or entire medical areas into brightly coloured child-friendly spaces to reduce the stress on young patients receiving treatment in those areas. A Smilezone renovation was completed in Soldiers’ Pediatric Outpatient Clinic on the second floor of the hospital in 2019.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic has limited the work that can be done inside hospitals right now, the Foundation has adapted the services they can provide to fit with their mission.
“We aim to make tough days a little brighter for kids receiving treatment,” said Scott Bachly, Smilezone founder. “We can’t do that as we usually would right now, but these masks are one way we can bring smiles to the faces of young patients. Through the cooperation of some great local donors, we are thrilled to donate 100 Safe Smile Masks to Soldiers’.”
For every mask purchased through the Safe Smile Campaign, Smilezone donates a mask to one of their partner healthcare centres. Locally, Howie Campbell, owner of the Ontario Hockey League’s Barrie Colts, helped make this mask donation possible.
“We all need to wear our masks to keep ourselves and our community safe,” said Campbell. “Young patients receiving medical treatment are already going through more than a child should have to, so this is just a small gesture to protect them by sharing smiles and not the virus.”
Smilezone masks are available for purchase at www.smilezone.com for $7.95 plus HST.
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