The money brought in by the double doubles and donuts people buy while visiting family and friends at Sudbury Regional Hospital will fund research fellowships at either the hospital and the North East Local Health Integration Network (NE LHIN).

The Sudbury Regional Hospital Volunteer Association owns the Tim Hortons restaurant in the main lobby of the hospital, and shares ownership of the Tim Hortons restaurant in the Regional Cancer Program with the Northern Cancer Research Foundation.

When you add together the revenue from the Tim Hortons restaurants with the money brought in by the one-site hospital's gift shop and the now-defunct gift shop at the Memorial site, the volunteer association earned $100,000 over the past year.

The hospital's president and CEO, Dr. Denis Roy, announced at a press conference June 7 that most of the money will be divided up between the city's post-secondary institutions, with the condition that it be spent to fund research fellowships at either the hospital or the NE LHIN.

Laurentian University and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine received $30,000 each and Cambrian College and Collège Boréal $10,000 each. The hospital will keep $20,000, also to be spent on research positions.

Dr. Denis Roy, the hospital's new president and CEO, said he's spent his share of time in lineups at the hospital's Tim Hortons locations since he started his job earlier this year.

“I must admit that I was amazed and intrigued upon my arrival (in Sudbury) at the unique model of two volunteer-owned Tim Hortons franchises,” Roy said. “It is clear that the volunteer association has its finger on the pulse of its community.”

Roy said funding research fellowships at the hospital and NE LHIN is part of his efforts to push forward the hospital's role in training medical professionals.

“It's to start ingraining the concept that research is important and adds value to patient care,” he said.

The president of the volunteer association, Phillipe Cousineau, said his organization would have earned more than $100,000 if construction on the hospital last year hadn't forced one of the restaurants to move several times.

Cousineau said he's happy with how the money is being spent.

“The board of directors at the hospital made a very smart decision in recruiting a person like Dr. Roy, who has a great vision of what he wants to convert this hospital into, in the form of a university hospital,” he said.

The volunteer association's donation is the first step in making Roy's university hospital vision a reality, Cousineau said.
Dr. Roger Strasser said the funds received by NOSM will be used to support residents doing research at the hospital.

“As you may know, we have a growing number of residents undertaking their training here at the hospital,” he said.

“We see it as very important that as part of their training to be family physicians or internists or pediatricians, that our residents learn research and have an opportunity to be part of research projects.”

For more information about the hospital's volunteer association, visit http://www.hrsrh.on.ca/portalEn/VolunteerAssociation/tabid/905/Default.aspx.