News Release

HAIR FOR PALLIATIVE CARE PROJECT RAISES $3,000

For Release: Friday July 4, 2008

Hair for Palliative Care project raises $3,000

Yorkton July 4 — Lynn Walker, working with the SecurTek Pioneers and SecurTek, undertook to shave her head to raise money for palliative care. For the last several months they have taken on fundraising projects and raised pledges for the palliative care program at the Regional Health Centre in Yorkton. The fundraising campaign came to a close last week, when on June 27th Lynn Walker had her hair shaved off by Lonnie from Shear Bliss Hair Salon. In all, Lynn Walker raised personal donations of $1,268 and the SecurTek Pioneers raised an additional $1,732 for a total of $3,000.

Lynn’s hair has been given to Lock’s of Love, an organization that provides hairpieces to financially disadvantaged children, suffering from long-term hair loss because of a medical condition. The hairpieces help to restore confidence and self-esteem to the children.

“This ‘head shaving initiative’ came about because of an innocent conversation,” said Lynn Walker. “Some of the pioneers were talking about a recent head shaving and I mentioned I would shave my head for the right cause. Over the next few months I gave this idea a lot of thought. I had wanted to do something for the community but at the same time do something in memory of my Grandma as she passed away from cancer a few years ago. I came up with the Palliative Care Ward as I believe that victims of cancer are both the family and the patient. From experience I realized it is very important that the final stages of cancer need to be comfortable,” concluded Ms. Walker.

SecurTek and SecurTek Pioneers decided to support and work with Ms. Walker when she explained she would be willing to shave her head. SecurTek Pioneers sent e-mails to staff advising them of the project and asked for their support. Several projects were undertaken to raise money including: meat orders, a plant sale, summer BBQ’s and raffle draws. The Pioneers raised funds over a span of four (4) months.

“I think it takes courage for someone to come forward and be willing to shave their head for such a worthy cause, said Kristy Cmoc”, co-chair of the SecurTek Pioneers. “Lynn’s ambition to raise money for Palliative Care as well as to donate her hair to Locks of Love really touched many people here at SecurTek, as everyone seems to know someone who has been in situations where the Palliative Care unit is needed. Our staff really came together to support Lynn and were excited to be a part of something as big as this project, and we really want to thank Lynn for this opportunity,” finished Kristy Cmoc.

“We are very appreciative of Ms. Walker taking the initiative to start a project like this. The end stages of a person’s life are very challenging for the patient and family and you want to do everything possible to make everyone as comfortable as possible. This donation will be combined with other funds that have been raised in the community so that we can make improvement to the palliative care facilities,” said Ross Fisher, Executive Director of The Health Foundation.

A bar-b-que was held April 29th with Emerald Bison Ranch donating all the Bison Burgers for the Kick off Bar-b-que.

Several businesses donated products and services in support of Lynn’s fundraising initiative. These products were put together in 3 baskets and raffle tickets were sold to employees of SecurTek raising approximately $250. Solonica, Shear Bliss Salon & Day Spa, Fabutan, and Luna Experience were the businesses who made the donations.

For further information, please contact Ross Fisher, Executive Director, at 786-0507

High-resolution TIF images to accompany this news release will be available to the media in electronic form Monday, July 7th directly from www.TheHealthFoundation.ca