Oakville, ON – Carol Chen and Shawn Fang are supporters of their local hospital and as the COVID-19 crisis escalated in Canada, they knew they had to take action. The dramatic increase in demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) means frontline healthcare staff could run out of masks and face shields putting themselves, their patients and the public at a risk of infection. Shawn, Carol and four other team volunteers launched the Oakville Chinese Community Response Fund on March 18, 2020 and raised $30,000 within just two days for the Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital; this week, the total has surpassed $35,000. The team has promoted this GoFundMe campaign on Twitter, Facebook, WeChat and through direct connections. “We asked our local MP, MPP and a regional councillor to promote our fundraiser,” says Shawn, a Sutton REALTOR®. “Moreover, the hospital foundation endorsed us in their official account; therefore we built up a lot of creditability to attract donors. We also set up a social media group for donors to receive updates.” Early on, Shawn discovered that it takes a few weeks for a GoFundMe campaign to get up and running then deliver funds to the hospital. Knowing time was of the essence, many of the volunteers made significant personal donations to purchase PPE. Shawn notes that each volunteer was essential: “There are six key volunteers involved, who are dedicated in different tasks and contribute to the success of the fundraiser: Joyce and Sophy are in charge of sourcing and procurement; Wade is in charge of social media; Carol and I are responsible for public relations, especially communication with key stakeholders including elected officials from three levels of government and director of Hospital Foundation.” Please consider donating: https://ca.gofundme.com/f/oakville-covid19-response-fund
Pictured above, L-R: Suzanne Hallsworth, Carol Chen, Shawn Fang and Joyce Dong
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Sutton Group Realty Services Ltd. Contact:
Brooke Matthews
604-691-1689
Sutton Group Realty Systems Inc. Contact:
Shawn Fang
905-896-3333
Carol Chen
416-800-7134
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