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Nipissing Serenity Hospice leads the charge in national community fund contest

'We were informed that we have obtained the most votes of all the applicants' Mathilde Bazinet, Nipissing Serenity Hospice Chair

The chair of Nipissing Serenity Hospice is hoping for a big return after receiving strong support from voters in the national Aviva Community Fund contest. 

"It went extremely well. We were informed today that we have obtained the most votes of all of the applicants. We did get 22,453 votes. So we had hoped to be in the competition for the $100,000 prize, but we may be considered for the $150,000, so that is very exciting," says Mathilde Bazinet.  

"We will find out November 1st whether we're going to have any of the prizes. There's several, there's $150,000, there's $100,000 and there's a $50,000 one. And then any of the organizations who have gotten a certain amount of votes will get $5,000."

The news arrived on the same day as the second annual Girls Night Out-'Puttin On the Glitz' gala. Close to 280 women attended the Hospice fundraiser at The Davedi. 

Tammy Barnes, community events fundraising committee chair, says this year's event is in honour of a woman who devoted much of her time fundraising for a Hospice for North Bay.

"This year's theme is for Adele Williams, one of our founding fundraiser's. She passed away last year, so this year 'Puttin On the Glitz' reflected Adele and what she was all about, and the vibe is very, very supportive in the hall tonight. It's a lot of fun."  

Tracy Sloan and her friends were back for another year. 

"Last year was great. They had an amazing photo booth and this year, luckily we were able to have a handwriting analyst, who is interpreting what our handwriting says about us, so I'm really excited," laughs Sloan."All the women here are dressed to the nines, for nobody but themselves which is wonderful, you know, why not? So you can tell everybody is having a great time."

Organizers are confident the gala will surpass the $16,000 raised last year.   

The Hospice chair says overall, fundraising for the Hospice is going well.

"We are still waiting though, for a grant from Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation, but the Ministry of Health announced this year that they are going to be funding the building of hospices, and so we have applied and our application has gone through," explained Bazinet. "

"It's $200,000 per bed. Now, because the LHIN (Local Health Integration Network) said it will only fund six of our beds, then that would limit our grant to $1.2 million. If the LHIN did fund the 10 beds that we're going to be accommodating, then that would be $2 million in grants, so that's an important difference."