Yukon Hospital Foundation Raises $50,000 Goal Amount for New Yukon Medical Simulation Centre

Thursday, 18 July 2019 11:50

The live auction was hosted during the evening portion of the event last Saturday. Yukon Party MLA Scott Kent was the auctioneer and helped with the selling of the live auction items for sale.

Yukon Hospital Foundation Executive Director Karen Forward says her organization successfully raised $50,000 at the 10th Annual Skookum Asphalt Pro-Am Golf Charity Tournament last Saturday. The money will go towards the purchase of a new Yukon medical simulation centre at Whitehorse General Hospital.

Yukon Hospital Foundation Executive Director Karen Forward says her organization successfully raised $50,000 at the 10th Annual Skookum Asphalt Pro-Am Golf Charity Tournament last Saturday.

Forward says the money raised from the tournament's silent and live auctions will now go towards a Yukon medical simulation centre at Whitehorse General Hospital. The centre will provide a safe place for doctors, nurses and other medical professionals to practice their skills and be prepared for real-life emergency medical scenarios across the territory.

Forward says there were many other highlights from the tournament for her as well.

"We got really lucky with the weather. It behaved and started pouring as soon as everyone went home. That was definitely a highlight. We had about sixteen teams out playing both in the morning and the afternoon. We were sold out and it was a great event. Everybody had a lot of fun. We appreciate the golf pros who volunteer their time to come up and play in the Yukon. Many of them requested to come up to the Yukon again (to play) again because they loved it so much."

The tournament has successfully raised over half a million dollars over the past nine years of it's existence, also helping to purchase other critical medical equipment at Whitehorse Hospitals for Yukon patients.

Forwards says multiple people are involved to make the event happen each year.

"The foundation starts working on this event in February. We also have a tremendous amount of help from Jeff Wiggins up at the Mountain View Golf Course, including all his team of staff. We also have 25 volunteers from various locations that came to Whitehorse to help. There were approximately 70 live auction items at the event. Some of the items come from the pros who bring items up to the event. Other items come from the extremely generous businesses in the Yukon who always amaze us with their generosity."

Forward says there are multiple aspects that make the Yukon golf tournament unique to others.

""We knew that when this gold tournament idea was cooked up by Jeff Wiggins, including former Yukon Hospital President Scott Kent and Skookum, they wanted to do something different than a normal golf tournament. Consequently, this tournament pairs up three amateurs and a golf pro that comes up. They then get to play with the pro for the day. That's what makes this tournament unique over other golf tournaments happening up in the Yukon."

Yukon Party MLA Scott Kent also helped with the event. He was the auctioneer for the event and helped to sell off all of the live auction items for sale.

The final dollar amount raised by the golf tournament is expected to be released over the next couple weeks.

Yukon Hospital Foundation Raises $50,000 Goal Amount for New Yukon Medical Simulation Centre

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