Helping patients get better connected

Some patients in hospital without any means to communicate with family members are now getting connected, courtesy of donated tablets and other technology.

A fashion, culture and entrepreneur organization, PARK (Promoting Artists / Redefining Kulture), has been collecting used tablets and phones for Calgary patients hospitalized with COVID-19.

They were delivered to the Peter Lougheed Hospital Thursday along with meals and ice cream from sponsors like Inspired Go, Village Ice Cream and Trubuch Kombucha. In addition, gift baskets of wellness supplies and gift cards for healthy meals and groceries were given to frontline nurses.

At the end of April, PARK was asked to help by a group of health-care professionals. The organization reached out to entrepreneurs and philanthropists to help source tablets and phones for patients, and wellness, food, and mental health resources for nurses.

A Go fund me campaign was launched to raise funds for the program, which will be donated to hospitals across Calgary. So far, it has raised more than $3,000.

“After learning first-hand of the challenging conditions of nurses at all of our city’s hospitals, as well as the limited means of communication patients hospitalized with COVID-19 have to stay in touch with their loved ones, we decided we had to draw on the amazing and caring community we have cultivated ... and do something to help,” said Kara Chomistek, president of PARK.

To help raise funds for the initiative, PARK teamed up with longtime collaborators Mode Models International to enlist international models like Alberta’s Tricia Helfer and Heather Marks to create Canada’s first at home fashion show, which is currently streaming on parkonline.com, modemodels.com, and their Instagram channels. The virtual runway show — filmed in hallways and backyard patios — has received over 30,000 views and is helping raise awareness of the Gofundme campaign.