January 17, 2012
Cystic Fibrosis Canada, Scotia Chapter moved to 6454 Quinpool Road, Suite 101, in March 2011. Not long after, I met Pamela Barnes, the Development Coordinator for Cystic Fibrosis Canada, Scotia Chapter, and the driving force for all of their local fundraising initiatives.
To say Pamela is passionate about her job would be an understatement. She appears to eat drink and sleep the organization’s mandate, which is “to help individuals with Cystic Fibrosis, principally by funding CF research and by supporting high quality clinical and transplant care”. Their “goal is to ensure that every dollar raised works for all persons with Cystic Fibrosis in Canada”.
“Cystic Fibrosis is the most common fatal disease affecting Canadian children and young adults. There is no cure for CF- that is the bad news. The good news is that the organization has made great strides since they first formed 51 years ago, (the Scotia Chapter recently celebrated their 48 year anniversary). At that time, children with CF were not expected to live past four years of age. Today there are adults living in to their fifties. As one person living with CF said, “Growing older is an unexpected priceless treasure.”
Pamela and her husband, Jack (who is more often than not, behind the scenes helping Pamela) have a very personal reason for working for Cystic Fibrosis Canada, Scotia Chapter. They had a very dear friend who was living with CF. At the time, he was one of the longest living CF patients. He died in 1983 at the age of 24. Pamela and Jack both made a promise to their friend, Clark Green, that they would stay with Cystic Fibrosis until there was a cure. They have kept their promise.
Pamela volunteered with the Association as the past president of the CF Palm Beach Chapter, where she chaired everything from the 65 Roses Gala to the Great Strides Walk. She moved back to Halifax in 2005 and was hired by the Scotia Chapter in 2007. It would take the entire newsletter to list the duties and events she so diligently takes on in her role. In a nutshell, she coordinates and executes events for fundraising, and public awareness. She also works with national partners such as the Kinsmen, Bio Guard and CARSTAR. CARSTAR took on CF as their charity of choice, working with Pamela on fundraising initiatives such as car washes in 2010 and 2011. Together, they broke the Guinness World Book of Records for most cars washed in a single day.
Other fund raising events include, but are not limited to: Great Strides Walk in May; 3 City Hockey Event in Atlantic Canada from November to January; The Kinsmen Sackville Curling Fun Spiel; Breakfast with Santa; Breakfast with the Easter Bunny; The Dragon Boat Races with the Dartmouth Kiwanis Club, The Danny Gallivan Golf Tournament and their newest fundraising initiative, Kites for Cystic Fibrosis at Quinfest.
Pamela, who is of retirement age, is an enthusiastic tireless individual, and in addition to all of her other duties has joined the Quinpool Road Mainstreet District Association’s Board of Directors, where she is soon scheduled to take on the role of Treasurer.
Pamela choose Quinpool, because “it is still considered downtown, but has more parking and is more conducive to their needs on traffic pattern basis”. Whatever her reasons, we are so glad she and her organization chose Quinpool Road.
To learn more about how you can help Cystic Fibrosis, call Pamela Barnes at 425-2462, e-mail her at Pamela@cfnovascotia.ca or visit www.cysticfibrosis.ca