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This year’s For The Health of It event came to a close Saturday November 29^th.  Students from the three Dal Health Faculties raised a record breaking $54,000 for Regional Residential Services Society. “…The funds will be going towards helping adults with developmental disabilities participate in recreation and health promotion activities”, said Erin Chaisson, a co-chair for the event.

Despite some friendly rivalries between the health faculties, each year they are able to come together for a charitable cause. The annual event is in its 34^th year, and has previously fundraised for charities including the ALS society, the North End Health Center, and the Autism Society.

Showcasing Inter-professionalism

The participating programs – Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Audiology/Speech Language Pathology, Pharmacy, and Health Sciences— are all tasked with organizing and performing a “skit that showcases inter-professional collaboration in an entertaining and informative way,” said Erin.

The event provides a way for each of the schools to explore the idea of inter-professionalism, raise money for a well deserving charity and show their creativity.

“It’s always a highlight of the year,” said Terrilyn Boudreau, a Physiotherapy student and representative on the steering committee. “Students from different classes get to work together to throw together a skit and raise money for a very deserving charity. It builds individual school spirit but at the same time introduces you to students from different programs, people you may actually work alongside someday. Plus it’s just a fun night with high quality skits, so you don’t have to be involved to the health professions to enjoy it.”

Planning the Event: It's all about the fundraising

Co-chairs from the previous years winning team and a steering committee organize the event. Physiotherapy won last year, and Erin Chaisson, Caitlyn Dunphy and Maria Watton, second year Physiotherapy students, stepped up to the task of chairing this year’s event.

“A steering committee made up of representatives from each of the schools come together to organize many aspects of the show,” said Erin. “They are the main people in their schools that organized fundraisers and planned the skits.”

Each school’s scripts were due by the middle of October, and it was up to them to practice in classrooms and gyms before the final event on November 29^th.  The schools also held several other fundraising events beginning in September.

“Most schools are pretty dedicated. They’re in it to win it,” said Erin, “No one’s program is easy, every program is probably the hardest program [each student] has been in and they found all this extra time”.

The co-chairs, while not involved in the actual skits or fundraising events themselves, coordinate the larger pieces of the event and praised the steering committee members for their help, “I don’t know how they were last year, but this year they were just awesome. They knew it was all about fundraising and the competitive part was just on the side,” said Caitlyn.

Selecting a Charity

When selecting a charity, the co-chairs “tried to keep it local. That way people in the community have a better chance of having a relationship with the charity,” said Maria.

Each of the schools submitted two charities to the co-chairs, who had the challenging task of narrowing it down to four charities. “It was the toughest decision,” said Maria. After the top four were selected, members of the steering committee voted on the charity that would be supported.

“I wasn’t aware of the depth of the charities we have here. It was neat to get a chance to learn about charities in your backyard,” Maria added.

This Year's Awards

The co-chairs were pleased with how the event turned out. “We were really impressed this year. Everyone’s dances, everyone’s jokes, everything was really creative,” said Erin.

 “Every single person I’ve talked to has said this was the best year for scripts. One of our professors started this event 34 years ago so she’s seen almost all of them and even she agreed this year was the best overall,” Caitlyn added.

The Dean of the Faculty of Health Professions, a representative from Scotiabank, and a representative from Regional Residential Services Society judged the event.

A winner is determined by a number of criteria, “but it’s mostly about the fundraising,” explained Caitlyn.

Physiotherapy won the overall event, making it the first time a school has won 3 years in a row. In addition to the overall winners, a number of other awards were given out:

• Crowd Favorite and Best Costumes: Occupational Therapy
• Best Comedy: Health Sciences
• Best Props and Most Interprofessional: Human Communication Disorders
• Best Dance: Dentistry
• Most Educational: Pharmacy
• Best Music: Nursing
• Most Gonged: Medicine
• Most Participation, Top Fundraiser, and Best Overall skit: Physiotherapy

If you missed the event and wish to purchase a DVD, or want to suggest a charity for next year, email fthoicc@gmail.com