Supporting Local Children's Hospitals Across B.C., Alberta, & Saskatchewan

In 1993, E.B. Horsman & Son decided to take on the challenge of supporting a charity at a corporate level. As of June 2019, we have donated a total of $897,141.00 to the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation, which financially supports the province’s only pediatric acute care hospital.

We are proud to support various fundraising activities, from a major NASCAR pool, silent auctions, and Super Bowl pools to small chili cook-offs and barbeques. These continuous fundraising initiatives happen throughout the year, enabling E.B. Horsman & Son employees, suppliers, and customers to give back to the community and contribute to BC Children’s Hospital.

Funds raised support the Excellence in Child Health Fund and go to the areas of greatest need, providing the essential services, critical research and advanced technology necessary to make leading pediatric care accessible to our province’s one million children.

In 2016, E.B. Horsman & Son began contributing a portion of its yearly BCCHF fundraising dollars specifically to Beads of Courage, a program within the Child Life department at B.C. Children’s Hospital.

Beads of Courage is a resilience-based intervention program designed to support and strengthen children and families coping with serious illness. Through the program, members tell their stories using colourful beads as meaningful symbols of courage that they receive to honour and acknowledge each step of their treatment journey. Beads are awarded according to a specific program’s bead guide. For milestones in their treatment journey, members receive handmade, one-of-a kind glass beads that are donated by members of Canada’s glass lampworking community.

All program bead guides were developed in collaboration with experts in the field (including nurses, doctors, child life specialists and social workers) so that each bead would reflect meaningful acknowledgment of a member’s treatment journey.

The Beads of Courage program generates many benefits and positive outcomes. Ongoing evaluation indicates that it helps to:

• Decrease illness-related distress;
• Increase the use of positive coping strategies;
• Provide meaning for members dealing with illness and offer guidance on what to anticipate in their treatment journey;
• Restore a sense of self in those coping with serious illness;
• Provide something tangible that members can use to talk about their experience during and after treatment; and,
• Create a common language among members.

E.B. Horsman is proud to support the Beads of Courage Oncology Program at British Columbia Children’s Hospital. E.B. Horsman & Son is proud to support Beads of Courage. For more information, visit www.beadsofcourage.ca.

With our expansion to Alberta in 2015, we started working with the Stollery Children’s Hospital Foundation so that funds raised in Alberta benefit local families. The Stollery Children’s Hospital is a 150-bed facility in Edmonton that opened in October 2001. For more information, visit stollerykids.com

Since 2018, E.B. Horsman & Son has committed fundraising dollars to the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation in support of Alberta Children’s Hospital in Calgary and local families. For more information, visit www.childrenshospital.ab.ca.

In 2018, E.B. Horsman & Son returned to Saskatchewan – where we opened our first location more than a century ago – and began supporting local families through the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation. Based in Saskatoon, the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital, which opened its doors in September 2019, is dedicated to the enhancement of maternal and children’s healthcare. For more information, visit https://pattisonchildrens.ca/