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Wellspring growing to fit its clientele By John Bkila OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Now twice its original size, the newly revamped Wellspring Birmingham Gilgan House on Sixth Line in Oakville is ready to offer expanded programming to more Halton and Peel residents fighting cancer. "For the individuals who come here, they now have greater access to services and programs in a nicer environment with more spaces purposefully built and designed for what we do," said Judi Perry Brinkert, regional director of Wellspring, who spearheaded the expansion of the 2545 Sixth Line centre. "For Wellspring, it (the expansion) means we're much better able to meet the needs of the individuals who come to see us and we're able to reach more people and accommodate them. It also allows us to offer a greater variety of programs and services than SUBMITTED PHOTO we were able to before." The new 8,148-square-foot (757 metre-squared) centre fea- BIGGER than ever: The newly-expanded Wellspring tures three floors, with accessible washrooms on two floors, an Birmingham Gilgan House on Sixth Line. elevator, and 14 rooms. That's when Betty Birmingham, a Wellspring member and It is in those rooms where Wellspring's more than 3,600 members have access to coping strategies, support groups, a childcare Oakville resident, pledged to donate $1 million to help start the centre, and different therapies, including art, music and writing. expansion project. "I really can't tell you how excited we were at the news because "We have people who come to us from the point of diagnosis and even in some cases when people are waiting for treatment, it meant we would be able to support individuals with cancer here when they've been told there is a good chance they have cancer in the Oakville, Burlington and Mississauga area that much better," said Perry Brinkert. and they're terrified," said Perry Brinkert. Construction for the $3-million expansion campaign went "But we generally work with people from the point of diagnosis to right on through to survivorship, if that's the trajectory. We through August 2011-November 2012, with the new centre also support people if their treatment trajectory goes towards pal- reopening its doors by Dec. 1, 2012. liative care." And it's all offered to the Wellspring members for free -- that's part of the centre's mandate for all of its 11 locations across Canada. "People have enough financial difficulties when they're undertaking treatment for cancer. It's important their support services should be made available to them free of charge," Perry Brinkert said. The need to expand the centre was present a few years ON BRAND NEW FURNACES & AIR CONDITIONERS CALL NOW, QUANTITIES ARE LIMITED! HI-EFFICIENCY ago, when Wellspring's Oakville location had more demand 95% HI-EFFICIENCY DC MOTOR GAS FURNACE AIR CONDITIONERS than it did space. UP TO $ NOW 650 IN "Wellspring was pretty much at its capacity... we were Was ONLY GOVERNMENT REBATE Per $ growing so much and we were getting more and more people month NOW Was OAC Per month in every year, we were finding the house originally hadn't been Per ONLY $ FURNACE DIAGNOSTIC month designed for the number of people we were seeing," she OAC SERVICE Per month explained. "We had converted every closet into programming BRAND NEW UNITS $ AVAILABLE ONLY IN 4 SIZES Was $99 ONLY space, so that we had no storage space left. We were at the *See dealer for details THE FORECAST CALLS FOR point where things were getting challenging." 9 Locations To Serve You Better! In addition, the original centre was not equipped to properly help members with mobility limitations -- only the main floor was designed to be completely accessible. HEATING & COOLING www.aireone.com · 1-888-827-2665 Wellspring was able to temporarily move to an old library property in Oakville -- about a quarter of the size of the original centre -- during construction and continued to run nearly 80 per cent of its programs, while still welcoming new members. Perry Brinkert says the community's generosity, including private and corporate donors, amazed her and it was only through them Wellspring was able to meet its tar- Peter Gilgan get -- two of the largest donors were Birmingham, and her late husband Bruce, and Mattamy Homes' Peter Gilgan; Mattamy built the original centre and had gifted it to Wellspring. See Wellspring page 20 19 · Thursday, February 21, 2013 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com AWNIN GS HUGE INVENTORY BLOW OUT UP TO 50 OFF % 78 EST. 1966 AWNING PRODUCTS www.jansawningproducts.com 4361 Harvester Road, Burlington SHOWROOM 905 335 3733 $ 39 58 $ 29 49 Friday February 22 Saturday February 23 905-849-4998 905-632-0505 HOME SHOW NEW ANCASTER FAIRGROUNDS A+ RATING