A group of health care workers at Health Sciences North (HSN) are the newest winners in the HSN 50/50 Cash Lottery.
It was announced Tuesday that Helen Guillot and 18 of her colleagues on HSN’s Respiratory Care Unit had the winning ticket for January 2022, the first monthly draw of the new year.
The group will be sharing a jackpot of $585,472. Proceeds from the monthly draw are directed to supporting the HSN Foundation, NEO Kids Foundation, Northern Cancer Foundation, and the HSN Volunteer Association, which in turn supports various health-care services centred at Health Sciences North.
Guillot, a registered nurse, said she was surprised with the win and pleased with the luck of her group, who all work on the sixth floor, south tower, the respiratory care unit.
“I’ve been purchasing HSN 50/50 tickets for a few months now for myself and I don’t know, I came in one day and asked if anyone on the team wanted to buy tickets together. After all was said and done, we had 19 people,” said Guillot.
“This is just such a great boost for us. We’ve been in the midst of COVID for two years now and it has been tough. We needed something positive and this wasn’t what we expected, but it really did it," she added.
Anthony Keating, the president and CDO of Foundations and Volunteer Groups at HSN said he was pleased to see the first group winners taking home a monthly jackpot.
“They stare COVID in the face daily and work so hard to help those in need and we couldn’t be happier to help make a difference in their lives,” said Keating.
“Thank you again to the many supporters of the HSN 50/50 across the province. We are looking forward to another big jackpot in February and continuing to have an impact on patient care at HSN,” he added.
Shane Gordon, the manager of marketing and communications for the Northern Cancer Foundation explained that the formal lottery licence for the HSN 50/50 cash lottery states that members of various foundations that support the hospital and those who live in their households are not permitted to buy tickets. These foundations are independent from the hospital, despite raising money that supports hospital services.
As Health Sciences North is a separate entity from the foundations and is not tied to the lottery licence or the operation of the lottery, this means hospital employees are free to purchase tickets.
