FINANCIAL SUPPORTERS
Our Financial Supporters
Our financial supporters help to keep our operational costs low and allow us to serve the needs of our sick and fragile babies. We have one of the leanest financial models, assuring our donors that their money will go directly to support our services in hospitals and in the community.
Help support NorthernStar Mothers Milk Bank
We are a member of the Community Knowledge Centre where you can go to find out more about who we are, why we do what we do, and how you can help.
http://ckc.calgaryfoundation.org/org/northernstar-mothers-milk-bank
Supporter Spotlight
Matt Stayner
TimberTown Building Centre
Matt became familiar with the milk bank through Executive Director Jannette Festival. Both share a serious commitment to their daughters’ volleyball community and Matt had the opportunity – between bumps and spikes – to hear of the plans to build Canada’s only community-based milk bank. As the owner of TimberTown Building Centre, it was natural that Matt could be of assistance as the milk bank approached the daunting task of building a state-of-the-art milk-processing lab.
“What Jannette was trying to do tugged at the heart strings of my wife and I,” he shared. “I had never thought about how to get safe mother’s milk to infants in need. It was an amazing concept. Jannette had seen it working in the States and I thought - we have premature babies here too and this was instrumental. It’s a whole new world.”
Assured that Jannette and her team had figured it out, Matt felt compelled to help. “If she was prepared to all of the things to get a milk bank operational, it became natural that I would step in and help with any of the building materials.”
During the milk bank’s construction, Matt ensured that building supplies and materials, specialized contractors and installers were coordinated and taken care of. At a time when the milk bank’s focus was on meeting the needs of sick and fragile babies, recruiting donor mothers who had never heard of milk banking and building relationships with hospitals and the medical community, it’s no wonder why Matt and his TimberTown team remain an important part of the milk bank to this day. For Matt, it was business as usual. “You do your part, and I’ll do my part,” as he says it. It’s the idea of “doing their part” that continues to keep Matt and his wife interested in the ongoing growth of the milk bank. “Who is more at risk than a premature baby?” he asks, “These babies are totally innocent and have no control, but by giving to the milk bank, you are giving to something that’s supported and run by local people.”
Calgary Children´s Foundation
A $5,000 grant from the Calgary Children's Foundation will be used for the creation of a donor video.
The Children’s Hospital Aid Society (CHAS) recently donated $10,000 towards the purchase of a new freezer which will help us increase our production and supply to communities across Canada.
With a $30,000 grant from the Edmonton Community Foundation we were able to cover many of the costs related to our rebranding to NorthernStar Mothers Milk Bank. This included new posters and brochures along with other important advertising endeavors to increase awareness about the importance of pasteurized donor human milk.
J & L Shuttle Services provides transportation of milk from the Medicine Hat Milk Drop to NorthernStar Mothers Milk Bank and from the Milk Bank to Medicine Hat Regional Hospital’s NICU. By donating these services it greatly reduces the costs of transportation, making it more accessible for the hospital and keeping the cost of the milk itself as low as possible.
Our primary courier in Alberta, Jazoo Courier allows us to bring milk into the milk bank from Calgary, Edmonton, Red Deer, Grande Prairie, and Fort McMurray. They also deliver milk to many Alberta hospitals and supplies to some of our Alberta Milk Drops. Jazoo has always made themselves available to our often urgent deliveries and financially support the milk bank with a very generous annual donation.
Always ready to invest in new equipment when we need it.
The Olympia Charitable Foundation graciously donated $5,000 to our Community Care Fund as well as $5000 towards the purchase of a walk in freezer.
Red Arrow donates the transportation of milk anywhere they travel. This reduces the cost of transporting milk.
Spartan Controls provided a generous donation to our Community Care Fund which allows us to provide milk for those babies who have a medical need when family finances are not able to cover the cost of the milk outside the hospital.
A $10,000 grant from the Stollery Children's Hospital Foundation allowed us to create four educational videos about NorthernStar Mothers Milk Bank.
After pasteurization milk needs to be cooled as quickly as possible, the Britannia Sunterra Market provides us with ice every week in order to do this.
Many patrons have provided financial donations through United Way to the milk bank.